Developing Sustainable Agriculture in Pakistan

Agriculture is Pakistan’s main factor in economic growth, but fixed cropping patterns, reliance on few major crops, narrow genetic pools, poor seed quality and changing climate have compromised production. This book identifies problems in the industry, and provides remedies to these problems and ways of moving forward towards improvement.

Iqrar Ahmad Khan with long career in education and agriculture had earned PhD from the University of California, Riverside. He is currently serving as Vice Chancellor of the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan (since 2008). Dr. Khan has supervised more than 100 graduate students and researchers, established a Center of Agricultural Biotechnology and co-founded a DAAD sponsored ‘International Center for Decent Work and Development' (ICDD), USAID funded Center of Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security, a French Learning Center and the Chinese Confucius Institute. He has organized numerous international conferences and established academic linkages across the continents. He has released a potato variety (PARS-70), pioneered research on breeding seedless Kinnow and discovered new botanical varieties of wheat. Dr. Khan initiated an internationally acclaimed program to solve a devastating problem called Witches’ Broom Disease of Lime in Oman. He is currently leading international projects to combat citrus greening disease and mango sudden death. He has published more than 270 articles, five books and several book chapters. Dr. Khan has a diplomatic skill to attract international partnerships and academic linkages (Afghanistan, Australia, South Korea, China, Germany, France, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran, India, Oman, Canada, UK and USA). He has managed collaborative research projects sponsored by national and international agencies. As Vice Chancellor, he has revamped UAF academic, research and outreach programs. He added new academic disciplines to narrow the knowledge gaps in microbiology, biotechnology, environmental sciences, food and nutrition, climate change, engineering, rural development and education. UAF has achieved top ranks within the national system as well as in the QS and NTU rankings. Dr. Khan has a special knack for problem solving research. He has set up an Incubation Center for the commercialization of knowledge. Exhibitions and business plan competitions have been made biannual features. A range of new quality assurance mechanisms have been added and special initiatives are taken to narrow the gender gap. Dr. Khan is a Fellow of Pakistan Academy of Sciences and member of several professional societies and associations. In recognition of his outstanding contributions in the area of Agriculture and Food Security he was decorated with a civil award, Sitara-e-Imtiaz by the Government of Pakistan and very recently with Ordre des Palmes Academiques (with the grade of Officer) by the French Government for his exceptional role as an educator.

Muhammad Sarwar Khan with vibrant career in agriculture, education and biotechnology has earned PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK. The Rockefeller Foundation awarded him a prestigious fellowship under Rice Biotechnology Program for Developing Countries to carry out research at Waksman Institute of Microbiology, Rutgers the State University of New Jersey. His findings were published in Nature Biotechnology – a research of first-of-its-own-kind. Dr. Khan was a founding Head of Biotech Interdisciplinary Division at NIBGE, and is currently serving as the Director of Center of Agricultural Biochemistry and Biotechnology (CABB), University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. Dr. Khan has supervised about 80 PhD, MPhil students and researchers who are serving at national and international levels in various research institutes and universities. He has published enormously in high impact journals including Nature and Nature Biotechnology, and is an author of a number of books and book chapters. Dr. Khan has made colossal contributions in the field of biotechnology. He also pioneered plastid transformation in rice and sugarcane, recalcitrant plant species. As far as translational research is concerned Dr. Khan has developed borer-resistant transgenic sugarcane plants with no toxin residues in the juice. His current research interests include development of edible-marker-carrying transgenics and cost-effective therapeutics and edible vaccines for animals.