International symposium on "Modern approaches and Techniques in Agriculture to ensure Food Security" in Pakistan will be held on October 13 and 14, 2008 at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
Professor Dr Iftikhar Ahmad Khan, Dean, Faculty of Agriculture of UAF, who is also member of organising committee said that this symposium will review sustainable agriculture under changing climate scenario, crop growth modelling, crop improvements through molecular techniques and control of crop diseases through technological advances.
He said that in the post green revolution era, the world has witnessed incredible amplification in crop harvests. These improvements attributable to genetic improvement introduced through plant breeding and innovative production technologies have helped to nourish increased world population, provided greater food choices, increased food security and decreased malnutrition at affordable prices. Moreover, they have improved the livelihood stirring up outsized transformation in the structure of agrarian societies all over the world.
Professor Dr Iftikhar Ahmad Khan said that the projected world population growth and likely impact of climate change, severe water shortage, introduction of new strains of pathogens will pose very tough threats to agriculture particularly to the uninterrupted food supply to all at affordable price. We have to rethink and regain our energies to sustain crop productivity matching the demands of world population.
In future, crop improvement and management practices are expected to be more target-oriented, sophisticated and elegant which may be brought in by the cutting edge technologies and its dissemination to end users, he added. He mentioned that the integrated use of modern technologies and conventional crop improvement system would provide the possibility for food security.
The symposium will provide a forum to the world elite scientists engaged in the agricultural research and development to interact and find possible solutions to meet the current and future threats to food security in the world, he concluded.