Different crops in Pakistan (Baluchistan), 1981

Introduction

In the period before 1981 some plant collecting expeditions have been organised in Pakistan. However, the province of Baluchistan has not been included in these exploration efforts. The major objectives of this expedition can be summarised as follows:

• To collect plant genetic resources in an important part of the Central Asian Gene Centre where virtually no crop collections had been made previously. The PARC Genebank in Islamabad was determined to preserve the plant genetic resources of Pakistan and as such interested to collect in Baluchistan,
• The introduction of improved varieties of some crops like wheat, sorghum, rice and several vegetables caused genetic erosion of the local germplasm. Therefore these genetic resources needed to be collected and preserved urgently,
• To make new germplasm available to plant breeders, high priority was given to collection of cereal crops, pulses, oilseed crops, fodder crops and several vegetables.

The expedition was organized by the Plant Genetic Resources/Plant Introduction Division of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Islamabad, Pakistan and the Foundation of Agricultural Plant Breeding (SVP), Wageningen, The Netherlands.
The financial support was provided mainly by IBPGR Rome. From the Pakistani side the organization was in the hands of Dr. N.I. Hashmi whereas Ir. M. Mesken was the Dutch coordinator of the project.