Workshop held at AAUR

Rawalpindi: The five days training workshop on ‘The role of isotopic and related techniques in measuring greenhouse gas emissions from Agriculture and identifying their sources’ ended at Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR), here on Friday.

The National workshop was organised by PMAS-AAUR in collaboration with Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB), Faisalabad and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The training was organised under the IAEA Project entitled ‘Developing Isotope-Aided Techniques in Agriculture for Resource Conservation and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation’ with the overarching goal of human resource development and strengthening technical capacity of Pakistan to develop climate smart agricultural practices.

The main goal of the training was to equip young scientists, researchers and post-graduate students with latest developments in climate change science, appraising the quality of the information, interpreting and synthesizing this evidence, and packaging it appropriately for use in decision-making.

International experts Prof. Dr. Christoph Muller, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany and Dr. Mohammad Zaman, Technical Officer, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria gave training to the participants how to measure the greenhouse gases using isotopic techniques.

The training covered the following components; Measuring greenhouse gases (CO2, N2O and CH4) using chamber techniques, Using isotopic data of 15N, to identify the sources of N2O and Interpretation of data of 15N2O, 15NH4 + and 15NO3-, obtained from experimental trials with fertilizers enriched with 15N.

Participant over 15 different organizations participated in the training workshop including NIAB, NIFA Peshawar, NIA,Tando Jam, Sindh, PINSTECH, NUST, PMAS-AAUR, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Quaid-i-Azam University , GCU Faisalabad, Peshawar Agriculture University, Punjab University Lahore, Khawaja Ghulam Fareed University Rahim Yar Khan, Engro fertilizer and FFC,

Dr. Muhammad Masood ul Hassan, Member Science, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission was the chief guest at concluding session.