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• Surveillance of major diseases in rice, wheat, sesame, castor bean, and sugarcane.

• Identify economically important pathogens and resistant genotypes using classical and molecular approaches

• Investigate the biochemical and molecular mechanisms of plant-pathogen interactions to better understand disease progression and plant defense

• Develop and promote sustainable, environmentally friendly disease management solutions, including safe chemicals, biocontrol agents and nano-based interventions

Ongoing Research Activities

• Integrated Disease Management in Economically Important Crops (Rice, Wheat, Sugarcane, Sesame, Castor Bean)

• Molecular identification and characterization of plant pathogens

• Biochemical and molecular basis of plant pathogens interactions

• Phenotyping and imaging of disease resistant and susceptible crop plants

• Development of environment friendly nano-pesticide formulations against plant diseases

• Providing analytical facilities to public and private sectors for pesticide and aflatoxins residue, radiation detection, plant defensive enzymes analysis, water testing and molecular characterization of plant pathogens

 Research Achievements

• Disease surveillance in major rice and wheat growing districts of Punjab

• Twenty-nine pathotype of BLB pathogen have been identified having wider geographical distribution in Punjab

• Identification of resistant/ tolerant rice lines against BLB, Sheath blight and Brown spot diseases

• Two projects funded by PARB have been completed successfully on the management of rice diseases

• Contributed in the development of BLB resistant high yielding basmati variety “NIAB-Super” jointly with rice breeding group

• Screening of wheat germplasm against leaf and yellow rust diseases for the development of disease resistant high yielding wheat varieties

• Molecular identification and characterization of important plant pathogens and insect pests causing economic losses to rice, wheat, sesame and castor bean crop

• Host-pathogen interaction in crop plants against biotic and abiotic stresses through defense related enzymes activities

• Integrated disease management through host resistance, application of resistance inducer nanoparticles and fungicides

• Developed two ecofriendly nano-formulations for crop diseases management

• Exploration of bioantagonists and their application against fungal and bacterial pathogens of rice crop

• Screening of sesame and castor bean germplasm against charcoal rot, phyllody and grey mold diseases.

• Contributed in the development of disease resistant  and high yielding crop varieties of Castorbean and Sesame

• NIAB-Spineless, 2. NIAB-2023, 3. NIAB-Millennium, 4. NIAB-786, 5. NIAB-407, 6. NIAB-7

• Provision of Analytical Services to public and private sectors for molecular identification of plant pathogens by PCR methods and analyses of various compounds; proteins, phenols, peroxidase (POD), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), catalase (CAT), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), β-1, 3 Glucanase in different samples

Future Directions

• The future vision is focused on integrating cutting-edge technologies and interdisciplinary approaches to advance the understanding, diagnosis, and management of plant diseases

• Development of environment safe Plant Protection Products

• Development of disease forcasting model for early warning system

• Imroved phenotyping methods for precised disease assessment

Funded Projects

• PSF 927 Project titled “Assessment of silver and zinc oxide nanoparticles for the management of a bacterial and fungal disease of rice” 2023-2026 (PKR 3.04 Million)

• PSF 925 Project titled “Development of forecasting model for the management of leaf and yellow rust diseases in wheat” 2022-2025 (PKR 2.226 Million)

• IFS C6716-1 Project titled “Development of Image-based disease phenotyping method for precision agriculture” (IFS funded project) 2023-2025 (PKR 3.2 Million)

• PARB 22-577 Project titled “Management of Sheath blight and Bacterial leaf blight diseases of rice through development of resistant varieties and safe chemicals” 2023-2028 (PKR 16. 893 Million)

• SRDB 23-15 Project titled “Management of red rot disease of sugarcane through plant defense activators, nanoparticles and soil amendments” 2025-2028 (PKR 5.10 Million)

• PAEC-F Project titled “Development of bio-poducts and sustainable management of insect pests and diseases”  2025-2028 (PKR 10 Million)

 Collaborations

• Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC)

• Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF)

• International Foundation for Science (IFS)

• Punjab Agricultural Research Board (PARB)

• Sugarcane Research and development Board (SRDB)

• Agriculture Linkage Programme (ALP)

• Asian Development Bank (ADB)

• International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)

Click on following link for detailed Brochure;

Important Rice Diseases

Plant Based Nano-formulations for use in Crop Protection

NIAB NanoSilver

NIAB NanoZinc