LAHORE, Nov 30: Environment pollution is causing an alarming reduction in the yield of crops especially wheat, rice, soybean, gram, sunflower and canola.

This was stated by Government College University's science faculty member Dr Abdul Wahid while speaking at a discussion at the university on Tuesday.

He said the air pollution could reduce the yield of these crops more than 50 per cent and cause a financial damage to the economy. Dr Wahid, who has been awarded the Best University Teacher Award in science by the Higher Education Commission, has recently completed a multinational research project involving 20 countries through Stockholm on "effects of air pollution on crops and forests in developing countries".

On the basis of this research work, the Stockholm authorities have also awarded him another multinational research project which will end in 2007. He has also contributed over 50 research papers to journals of national and international repute.