KARACHI, April 25: Speakers at a national conference on Tuesday stressed the need for appropriate management of economically important agricultural crops, while remaining open to eco-friendly options only.
They also called for strengthening nematode diagnostic services and to create awareness of the devastating group of tiny pests among the peasantry of the country.
A three-day national nematological conference was jointly organised by the National Nematological Research Centre (NNRC) of the University of Karachi and the Pakistan Society of Nematologists, got under way on the KU campus. A workshop on integrated nematode diseases management in some cereals, fruits and vegetables of Pakistan is also being held, besides the conference.
Speaking as chief guest at the inaugural session of the conference and workshop, the vice-chancellor of KU, Dr Pirzada Qasim, stressed the need for research in an organised manner in line with the modern day techniques to overcome the nematode problems, their distribution, and severity and management methods.
He said that efforts should also be made to disseminate among the farmers the new techniques and skills related to prevention of pests and diseases in the crops, vegetables and fruits. Keeping in view the large dependency of Pakistan on agriculture, he emphasised over the applications of latest knowledge and techniques to check the damages caused to crops by pests and diseases.
Dr Pirzada hoped that the deliberations and recommendations made during the moot would go a long way in creating awareness of the plant diseases and remedial steps among all the quarters concerned.
I understand that Pakistani and foreign scientists and plant specialists participating in the conference would surely come up with valuable suggestions for improving the conditions of the crops in the country, he said.
The dean of the KU Science faculty, Dr Mohammad Qaiser, said that agriculture was the backbone of Pakistan. "In order to feed our huge population of 150-160 million and to boost our economy we have to take all possible and appropriate steps to improve the agriculture growth and find suitable remedies for plant protection against pest and diseases", he added, saying that plant parasitic nematodes were one of the serious threat to the country's agriculture products.
He said that due to their tiny and microscopic size plant parasitic nematodes generally remained unnoticed by the farming community, though they were responsible for heavy losses.
The problem of plant parasitic nematodes was not a local problem but a global one and as such the conference in question, which had brought a number of scientists and researchers from different backgrounds under one roof, should be utilized at maximum for knowing the nematological problems faced by various developing countries and find new eco-friendly ways and means to combat the problem, he remarked.
Highlighting the role of nematodes, Dr Manzoor H. Soomro, president of Pakistan Society of Nematologists, said that those were parasites of humans, animals including aquatics and insects and plants and pre-disposers to other pathogens, virus transmitters and pollution indicators as well.
He said that it was known that nematodes played important role in the ecosystem but due to their microscopic nature, we knew rather little. Nematodes existed for over 400 million years and have evolved with their hosts, and thus we can learn a lot and benefit from, just by studying the behaviour of those fascinating creatures, he added.
Referring to works carried out so far on nematodes in the country, Dr Soomro said that there were at least eight main institutions, including NNRC (KU), Pakistan Agriculture Research Council and agriculture varsities at Tando Jam, Faisalabad, and Peshawar, engaged in nematological research.
He lauded the role of the NNRC in the field of nematology and said that the NNRC was the largest slide bank in Pakistan with over 15,000 specimens. Pakistan has produced 14 PhDs in plant nematology, including 9 at the KU, 4 at the Agriculture University Faisalabad and one at the NWFP Agriculture University. NNRC Director Dr Shahina Fayyaz said the studies on plant nematodes in Pakistan were initiated in the early 1950s by Sattar and Hafiz, who reported Anguina tritici from Punjab areas, while the systemic research on nematodes began in 1974 at the KU under PL-480 Programmes, which led to the establishment of NNRC in 1987 with the collaboration of the PARC.
To a question, she said that about 50 delegates, including five from Egypt, UAE and India, were participating in the moot and workshop.
Dr Sami Elwaid of Egypt shared his scientific works on the use of entomopathogenic nematodes, which are recognized among the most promising safe bio-control agents to insects and particularly for those which live in cryptic habitats, in the UAE. He suggested that there should be targeted use of the agent in question and not to destroy or affect the beneficial insects or creatures.
