(Group Leader)

Dr. Muhammad Arif

Dy. Chief Scientist

Team members:

1. Muhammad Asif, Senior Scientist
2. Ms. NailaPerveen, Research Assistant
3. Mr. Qaisar Zaman, SA-II
4. Mr. Zahid Mahmood, SA-III
5. Five Ph.D. students
6. One M.Phil Student

The main objective of our group is the development and improvement of rice for better yield and quality against biotic and abiotic stresses. We are working both on basmati as well as non-basmati rice. We use molecular markers for the incorporation of stress tolerance genes from donor rice lines to basmati rice. We are also involved in mapping of grain quality traits of basmati rice like amylose contents, aroma, gelatinization temperature, grain shape and size. We are also working on the molecular diversity of basmati and non-basmati rice lines, traditional basmati rice lines, lines being received from China and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines.

We are in the process of development of basmati lines with multiple bacterial blight resistance genes pyramided in a single plant. We have incorporating drought tolerance genes from drought tolerant donor lines from IRRI into basmati rice and now we are working for combining drought and bacterial blight tolerance genes. We have also developed high yielding salinity tolerant, nutrient efficient rice lines.

International Collaborations

1. International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines
2. Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Beijing, China
3. University of California, Davis, USA
4. Bangor University, UK

National Collaborations

1. Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB), Faisalabad
2. Nuclear Institute for Agriculture (NIA), Tandojam
3. Rice Research Institute, Kala Shah Kaku
4. National Agriculture Research Council (NARC), Islamabad
5. Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH), Islamabad

Salient facilities:

1. Basmati DNA Testing to rice exporters
2. DNA finger printing of rice

Support:

1. Punjab Agriculture Research Board (PARB), Pakistan
2. Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences (CAAS), China/IRRI, Philippines
3. International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), Vienna, Austria
4. Pakistan Innovative Biological Services (PIBS), NIBGE