Inaugural session of Allelopathy Research in Pakistan: Experiences and Opportunities

The trend of excessive use of chemical fertilizer and pesticide needs to be curtailed as excessive use is having negative impact on the health of human being. This was stated by Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Prof Dr Muhammad Arshad while addressing the inaugural session of Allelopathy Research in Pakistan: Experiences and Opportunities arranged by the Department of Botany, the Department of Crop Physiology and the Department of Agronomy at the UAF. He stressed upon the scientists to try to avoid the duplication of research in order to save the resources. He said that excessive use of chemicals was deteriorating lands. Keeping the situation in view, we have to move to the other techniques including allelopathy to overcome the situation. He added that Pakistan was the facing the challenges of the food security. The population of the country was increasing manifold. We have to adopt the modern approaches to ensure the food and to save the environment. Department of Crop Physiology Chairman Prof Dr Shahazad Basra said that sustainable agriculture is vital to ensure the food security in the county. He also stressed the need to fighting the climate changes and to protect the environment. He said that Pakistan is among the top 10 countries of the globe who had worked in allelopathy whereas US was at the top in the list. He added that the allelopathy deals with the sustainable agriculture, weed management, insect pest management etc. Department of Botany Chairman Prof Dr Andul Wahid said that the country was facing the various challenges. We have to expedite the efforts to tackle the situation of food insecurity. He also stressed the need to promote the allelopathy across the country to cope with different problems facing the agriculture sector.