HYDERABAD, Jan 9: The vice chancellor, University of Sindh, Mazharul Haq Siddiqui, has stressed upon the scholars to concentrate on research in the fields of agriculture and chemistry to bring about an improvement in the related fields.

He was presiding over the final PhD seminar of a research candidate in the Centre of Excellence in Analytical Chemistry, University of Sindh, on Thursday.

He lauded the excellent work done by the Faculty of Science, University of Sindh, for producing PhD scholars in various fields.

The research scholar, Ghulam Qadir Shar, from the Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur, in his presentation on “Spectroscopic Analysis of Macro and Micro Nutrients and Impact of Soil Nutrients on different Food Commodities”, said that the contents of macro and micro nutrients in various varieties of wheat, maize, sorghum, rice, and barley as well as the soil of those specific areas were determined by using atomic absorption technique.

He said that the samples of wheat, maize, sorghum, rice, and barley were treated with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide followed by dissolving in de-ionized water.

He said that the determined macro- and micro-nutrients from different 28, 40, 23, 25, and 25 varieties of wheat, maize, sorghum, rice, and barley respectively were collected from two research centres of Pakistan and reference samples were collected from the seed certification and registration department, Islamabad, as well as from breeders.

He said that different varieties/hybrids/cultivars of wheat, maize, sorghum, rice, and barley show different concentrations in the same areas of Pakistan, and added that this may be due to different genotype characteristics, environment, and climatic conditions of Pakistan.

He said that because of these reasons, the sowing and harvesting periods and duration of crops was not the same throughout Pakistan and varied from place to place.

He said that in case of wheat, the highest concentration of sodium and magnesium was found in Quetta, and calcium and potassium in the NWFP varieties.

He said that a low concentration of copper was detected in Sindh and a high level of manganese in Sariab varieties.

He said that the data indicated that iron and zinc occurred at the highest level in Sindh varieties, and added that the highest content of aluminium was present in Faisalabad, and barium in Sariab varieties.