China, Pakistan join hands to establish joint wheat lab

Under a new initiative, China-Pakistan joint lab will be established on wheat research. The project will be funded by the Science and Technology Partnership Program of Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST).

The newly established lab will be located at Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), in partnership with Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS). A joint launching ceremony was held recently at QAU and CAAS last week and was also attended by the researchers from both sides and representatives from both embassies.

The joint lab will work on developing new climate resilient wheat varieties using new DNA-based technologies and will provide training to wheat scientists of Pakistan. On the inauguration ceremony, Dr. Sarwat Jahan, Dean of Biological Sciences welcomed this initiative and emphasized that QAU will facilitate the joint activities of the lab. Dr. Zhouhua Cao, First Secretary from Chinese embassy in Pakistan said that China has always extended cooperation to Pakistan on Science and Technology and this new joint lab will have all the support needed from Chinese embassy. Ms. Fareena Arshad, Counsellor Pakistan embassy in China welcomed the initiative and said that such partnership programs on food security issues are need of the time and will add value to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. Dr. Awais Rasheed from QAU and Dr. Zhonghu He from CAAS briefed about the proposed joint lab research activities for the next three years.