Arid Zone Research Institute, Bhakkar was established in 1991 for the uplift of agriculture in arid zone Districts of Bhakkar, Mianwali, Khushab, Layyah and Muzaffargarh. Important crops of this area are wheat, chickpea, guar and mungbean occupying 90%, 80% and 93% respectively of the total cultivated area of these crops in the Punjab Province. The breeding and release of high yielding new wheat, chickpea and mungbean varieties is a continuous process which covers a wide range of research activities involved in the evolution of genotypes resistant to biotic (rusts, bunts and other plant diseases) & abiotic (salt , heat, drought and frost ), wider adaptability and good quality characteristics. Simultaneously, development of package of production technology for newly developed genotypes is also a continuous process. Introduction of new crops, survey, collection, identification of insect pests, insects population dynamics of major crops and formulation of recommendations for their control are also the objective of this Institute.
Mission
Main goal / mission of Arid Zone Research Institute, Bhakkar is uplift of Arid Zone Agricultural Thal area way of introduction of hybridization and fine tuning of production technologies in present scenario of climate change.
Objectives
- Development of high yielding climate smart varieties of the wheat, chickpea and Mungbean.
- Testing newly developed strains under specific agro climatic conditions of Thal zone for their wider adaptability.
- To Identify agronomic factors limiting the productivity and profitability of chickpea, mungbean and wheat crops.
- To study the insect pest and diseases of crops incidence, damage and losses and control through Integrated Pest and disease Management strategies.
- Production of Breeder Nucleus Seed (BNS) and pre-basic seed of newly approved varieties
Future Plan
Farmer Led Research
- Demonstration of suitable innovations and possible solutions of profitability and productivity limiting factors through farmer led research / farmer participatory research.
- Agronomic Trials Field trials of agronomic practices (Date of sowing, diseases, weed and insect management, crop nutrition, rhizobium inoculation, machinery and varieties through farmer led research.
- Economic Analysis: Perform economic analysis to evaluate profitability of various innovations.
- Increase opportunities for farmers to undertake post-harvest value addition to chickpea, mungbean.
- Increase opportunities for farmers to undertake value chain to chickpea, mungbean to save interests of all stakeholders
- Develop and evaluate, in partnership with farmers, site specific village-based seed production and dissemination systems to facilitate access to improved varieties.
- Training seed producing farmers; demonstrate seed processing equipment; communicate village-based seed availability.
- Disseminate the learning and practices from the R&D activities to other farmers and private sector participants such as input suppliers and potential service providers.
- Enable and support farmer to farmer learning through capacity building sessions to enhance communication by involving private sector