ISLAMABAD, Feb 22: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has approved a project for upgradation of Department of Horticulture to Institute of Horticultural Sciences at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad.

According to a press release, the Rs35 million project was approved in a meeting of the Departmental Development Working Party (DDWP), which was presided over by the HEC executive director, Dr S. M. Hassan.

The main objective of the upgradation project is to strengthen teaching and research facilities in horticulture through setting up modern scientific laboratories, especially in breeding of new varieties of horticultural crops, and post harvest studies.

Currently, no work on breeding of new varieties is underway in the country, therefore initiation of BSc (Honours), MSc (Honours) and Ph.D programmes is essential, the statement said.

The project aims at developing techniques to improve production of horticultural crops and set up new sub-disciplines focusing on horticultural crops.

The scheme will also be helpful in transfer of technology through special training courses for farmers and end users by utilizing modern technologies for dissemination of information.

The institute will work under a full-time director overseeing a number of functions, including section of fruit crops, vegetable crops, floriculture, landscape, and medicinal and aromatic crops.