2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
Plant Science and Management of Drylands for Agriculture and Biodiversity
– A Step Towards Sustainable Development –

In academia, international conferences play pivotal role in promoting research and teaching. These events are important avenues for learning through interaction between faculty, researchers and students from different organizations across the country and abroad. Therefore, such events play a significant role in developing a learning culture in academia and motivation for research in students and academia, which is crucial for the growth of education sector. Furthermore, these activities are also highly important in developing awareness in youth about recent advances in research in a given domain of science and technology. The theme of a conference needs to be the one that well-appeals the current socio-economic status/issues of province of a country where the conference is conducted. The agriculture sector of Pakistan contributes 18.9% to GDP and accounts for providing employment to approximately 43% of the country’s labor. However, more than 90% of the country has arid to semi-arid climatic conditions. Salinity is another limiting factor that has affected large area of the country for agriculture.

Furthermore, unmanaged anthropogenic disturbance has affected the rangelands of this country, which poses a serious threat to the biodiversity and the environment as a whole. In Balochistan, which is the largest province of the country, extensive mining activities are further aggravating the problems to environment, agriculture and food quality. This international conference will provide an awesome opportunity and platform for the scientists of Balochistan to find solution for these serious issues via communicating with the experts in the field of agriculture, environment and rangeland management. Furthermore, Balochistan is blessed with innumerable species of medicinal plants. This is the need to time to highlight their existence, medicinal importance and potential utilization in future. This conference will be an important avenue for the stakeholders and scientists to utilize this precious resource for the economic growth of this province.

Students are the assets of nation. International conferences provide an excellent opportunity for the students to share their research work and exchange ideas with each other. Their interaction with scientists creates motivation in them and get them acquainted of opportunities to pursue higher education. The interaction of scientists during the event will help develop a Memorandum of Understanding between universities to share pedagogical resources, develop programs and courses facilitate student exchanges. Moreover, since this conference will focus on plant science, biodiversity, environment and agriculture in dry areas, the knowledge from this conference will greatly help promote research in addressing problems related to the sector of agriculture, biodiversity conservation and environment in Balochistan. The outcome of this conference in the form of research grants, enrolment of students in MPhil and PhD degree programs and production of research articles in high impact factor journals will eventually help raise the ranking of University of Balochistan and enhance growth of the sector of education of this province.