Dr Iqbal Takes Charge As Director Vegetables AARI

Renowned agriculture scientist Dr Muhammad Iqbal was appointed as Director Vegetable Department Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) and he has taken over charge of his office here on Monday

FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Dec, 2023) Renowned agriculture scientist Dr Muhammad Iqbal was appointed as Director Vegetable Department Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) and he has taken over charge of his office here on Monday.

A spokesman of AARI said that Dr Iqbal belonged to Pakpattan while Dr Qaisar Latif Cheema served the department as director vegetable before appointment of Dr Iqbal.

Dr Iqbal did master in “Plant Breeding & Genetics” from University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) in 1989 after which he also completed his PhD degree in same discipline from UAF in 2004.

Dr Iqbal served as Research Officer Vegetable in Agriculture Department from 1992 to 2007 whereas he also performed duties as Assistant Botanist in Vegetable Section from 2007 to 2010. Later, Dr Iqbal joined AARI from 2010 to 2011 as Director Potato Section and introduced 6 new potato varieties.

He also developed 3 hybrid tomato varieties including “Sandal”, “Ahmar” and “Sundar” in addition to introducing another tomato variety “Nadir”, gourd variety “Faisalabad Gol”, peas varieties “Sarsabz” and “Supreme”, bitter gourd varieties “Safina” and “Aswad” during his 30 year career and Punjab Seed Council approved all these varieties for their cultivation on commercial lines.

Dr Iqbal wrote more than 30 research papers which were appeared in national and international journals whereas he arranged various training programs for promotion of vegetables in addition to written pamphlets about vegetable production technologies for guidance and help of progressive farmers, spokesman added.