Industrial revolution at the cost of environment is not only detrimental to the existence of earth but is also a constant threat to the life on it, said Professor Dr Bashir Ahmad, Vice Chancellor, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF).
Inaugurating a 3-day workshop on "Advances in Plant Physiology", organised by department of Botany UAF and sponsored by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), the Vice Chancellor said industrialisation, unchecked urbanisation and enormous deforestation during past few decades had dramatically changed the patterns of global environment.
As a result, he said, the green house effects and global warming had triggered desertification and melting of glaciers.
Plants being immotile are forced to adopt polluted water and harmful salts as well as high carbon dioxide, concentration through some modifications in their physiological processes for their survival.
He said that considerable development had been made by plant physiologists to understand the intricate physiological processes under going in plants in the wake of fast changing environmental conditions.
He lauded the efforts of soil scientists to chalk out the ways to reclaim salt affected soils, introducing some salt tolerant varieties of cultivated crops and understanding the underlying mechanisms of salt tolerance and factors responsible for promoting plant growth.
He said that development of new rapid communication means had made it easy for the scientists to propagate their findings and share their ideas with fellow scientists engaged in resolving resembling research problem in far apart areas of the world.
However, our college teachers still lack access to internet and well maintained library facilities, he said and added that in the absence of these facilities, they were unable to refresh their knowledge at their own.
He appreciated the efforts of HEC for sponsoring the workshop and hoped that it would help college teachers to refresh and update their knowledge.
Professor Dr Muhammad Ashraf, Chairman Department of Botany, said that the current era was of biological sciences. "This discipline is considerably fulfilling its obligations to the human society," he said and added that there was dire need to contain human population.
He said that unchecked population would be a stress on the biological carrying capacity of the earth, hence we have to do result-oriented research for the prudent management of biological resources.
It was also imperative for the health and welfare of the populace, he added.
Dr Saadat Alia, Director Life Sciences Core, Higher Education Commission Islamabad said that HEC was playing an active role in the promotion of science and technological activities in the country.
She said that life science core group had so far sponsored 32 workshops and more than 1500 participants had been trained.
Professor Dr Rukhshanda Nawaz, Dean Faculty of Sciences also spoke on the occasion.
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