RAWALPINDI: Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Prof Dr Mohammad Mukhtar on Tuesday highlighted the impact of climate change on food security.

He was addressing a three-day 2nd International Conference on Plant Sciences and Expo 2024 (ICPSE-2024) under the theme: Plant Biodiversity and Food Security in the Wake of Climate Change (PBFS-CC)` commenced at Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi.

He said that food security is a challenge and research basedplanning is the need of the time for sustainable agricultural practices to ensure food security.

He stressed the need for enhancing collaboration among academia, agriculture experts, farmers and industry for the development of the agriculture sector to overcome food security issues in the climate change scenario.

The Faculty of Sciences is organising this conference in collaboration with Pakistan Science Foundation, Higher Education Commission, Punjab Higher Education Commission, with an aim to present the most recent advances in plant biodiversity with a special emphasis on food security in the climate changescenario.

The HEC chairman appreciated the organisers for arranging the conference. He also expressed the hope that this conference would provide an ideal platform for the researchers, and scientists to exchange ideas, and share their experiences.

Speakers from seven countries, leading botanists, ecologists, agriculturalists, herbalists and various relevant industries are participating in this conference through the exhibition.

The scientific programme covers plenary lectures from invited speakers and presentations from researchers while 200 abstracts received from 100 institutions of Pakistan.Johnny Shields, senior facility manager, US Embassy Islamabad was the guest of honour. He said that climate change was a natural phenomenon but it directly affected food and food security.

He stressed to take urgent measures for food security, as it is important for human survival.

The Arid varsity Vice ChancellorProf Dr Mohammad Naeem said that plant biodiversity had become an increasingly recognised critical issue at local, national, and global levels.

He expressed the hope that this conference would be helpful in identifying and discussing innovative strategies to conserve plant biodiversity and enhance the resilience of food systems.Prof Dr Kinney Chad, Director Institute of Cannabis Research, Colorado State University, USA addressed online on the topic Trends and Challenges Associated with Cannabis Research: Therapeutic Opportunity or Public Health Concern.

Prof. Dr. Henrik Balslev, Aarhus University, Denmark and Prof. Dr. Rahmatullah Qureshi (Chief Organizer/Dean, Faculty of Sciences) also addressed the occasion.

On the occasion a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was also signed between the university and Institute of Cannabis Research (ICR), Colorado State University, USA.