KARACHI, March 31: Pakistan is gifted with enormous resources and only needs proper management to make best use of available resources.
This was stated by Professor Hassan El-Shaer, ex-Vice President, Desert Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt, in a lecture delivered at the Arts Auditorium, University of Karachi.
Professor El-Shaer, an animal nutritionist, is on a short visit to the Institute of Sustainable Halophyte Utilisation of Karachi to share his vast experience on potential use of halophytes, which are plants growing naturally in the wild on barren saline land and not requiring sweet water for their sustenance, as animal fodder.
His visit has been funded by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, which has also provided financial assistance to the University of Karachi in establishing the institute.
In his talk, Professor El-Shaer further elaborated that Egypt and Pakistan have similar problems of land salinization and desertification, and that the establishment of this institute, which is the only one of its kind in the world, is a timely and wise investment to counter the challenge of the twin hazards.
Professor Dr M. Ajmal Khan, Project Director of the institute, said that the establishment is equipped with the most modern equipment and has the facilities to conduct state-of-the-art research on various aspects of ecology and eco-physiology of halophytes, leading ultimately to understanding at the biochemical and molecular level of the mechanisms conferring stress tolerance in plants.—APP
