| |
Second cotton conference commences today
Faisalabad—The Second National Conference on Cotton
will be held on May 5-6, 2008 to prepare action plan and appropriate
recommendations for nation-wide application for the cotton crop. Dr
Muhammad Ahsanul Haq, Chief Scientist/Director, Nuclear Institute
for Agriculture & Biology (Niab), which is an establishment of
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), said that this two-day
conference is being held with the idea to provide scientists and
other stakeholders with a forum to exchange knowledge and
experiences and to plan for effective strategies to boost cotton
production in the country.
The participants will pay special attention to the widespread
infestation of cotton leaf curl virus (CLCV) disease and mealy bug
due to which the cotton crop suffered badly in the country during
2007-08, he said. During the two-day long deliberations, he said
that more than 25 eminent experts in cotton research and production
will present their finding and the recommendations of the conference
will help meet the national targets in cotton production. During
last crop season due to heavy and widespread infestation of cotton
leaf curl virus disease and mealy bug cotton crop suffered badly in
the country. It is therefore imperative for scientists to exchange
and share knowledge and to make collective efforts to combat the
impending risks by planning effective strategies so that the cotton
production can be boosted in the country.
“Last year we had a cotton conference on the same lines which was
attended by a large number of experts and farmers. As a major
outcome of the conference, appropriate recommendations were
synthesised for nation-wide application for cotton crop.
This year we have planned to hold ‘2nd National Conference on
Cotton’ on May 5-6, 2008,” he said. Since 1970 cotton improvement
programme is in progress through the use of induced mutation and
related breeding approaches. Niab, by following the mutation
breeding procedure, developed a cotton variety Niab-78 by
irradiating the F1 hybrid of a local variety AC-134 and an exotic
variety Deltapine. This irradiation created a wide variability from
which Niab-78 was selected due to its plant structure, shorter
nodes, hairy leaf, early maturation, heat tolerance, high yield, and
long staple length. It became popular among farmers with planting
spreading fast in the Punjab and Sindh cotton belts. —APP
|
