ISLAMABAD, Dec 11: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will provide $0.236 million for a regional project to arrest the rapid spread of a disease in shisham trees in the region, a senior official in ministry of environment told Dawn.

The countries included in the FAO project are Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan respectively.

The Punjab government has already approved a five-year project costing Rs18.595 million to undertake field research on shisham die-back, which will be executed through Punjab Forestry Research Institute, Faisalabad (PFRI).

A core group of scientists has been constituted to assist PFRI to prepare a comprehensive action prior to the implementation of this research project.

Die-back of shisham manifests itself as a progressive shedding off leaves, accompanied by death of shoots, branches, roots, eventually the tree itself.

The causes of die-back in all the regional countries including Pakistan are still poorly understood by the researchers, but are thought to be a combination of biological, edaphic and silvicultural factors.

Explaining the main features of the FAO’s project, officials said that with the help of the proposed fund a Central Repository of Information will be established on die-back and related diseases. The information will be made available to researchers, extension workers and farmers using electronic media.

The project will support a sub-regional review of the current state of knowledge regarding pathology, control and prevention of die-back and related diseases.

On the basis of the review, a meeting of researchers will be convened to develop a medium -term collaborative research programme for die-back and identify potential sources of funding for this programme. Towards the end of the project, a second meeting will be held to assess progress in the research programme and chart future course of action, he added.

The project will also provide guidelines and training for researchers, extension workers and farmers for identifying and controlling die-back and related diseases of sissoo, and for establishing and managing plantations of multi-purpose tree species.

The group of scientists constituted by the Punjab government for research will regularly monitor and review the research studies on shisham die-back and provide regular feedback to the working group. The project also envisages training of tree farmers and extensive publicity of the results for control of the disease.

It may be added that in recent years, the growing incidence of wilt and die-back in shisham plantations particularly linear plantations established on heavy, poorly drained soils has ruined investments made by many farmers and contributed to a sharp down turn in the rate of planting.