History

Plant Pathology is concerned with study of Plant dieases, spread and control. The welfare of plants is of particular interest to those most directly concerned with the growth of Plants and manufacture and distribution of plant products. The department attempts to increase our knowledge of the causes and the development of plant diseases. It is also science with a more practical goal; to develops controls for all plant diseases in order to save the produce that is destroyed by plant diseases and to make it available to the hungry and millions of ill people of our increasing over populated word.

The department started functioning in year 1979 at the time of establishment of Barani Agricultural College , Rawalpindi . In 1987, Plant Pathology was introduced as a specialized subject in B.Sc.(Hons).Agriculture. Masters programme in Plant Pathology was started in 1996. Since October 2000, Ph.D. Programme in Plant Pathology has been initiated and presently both undergraduate and postgraduate classes are going on in the department.

Main objectives of the Department

• To impart higher education at undergraduate and post graduate levels in the field of Plant Pathology.
• To develop a human resource in different field of plant pathology i.e., plant virology, plant bacteriology, mycology and plant nematology. To take up these challenges of WTO implication in the field of sanitary and Phyto sanitary measures.
• To emphasis an IPM to discourage the non judicial use of pesticide in agriculture.
• To provide plant disease diagnostic facilities to the formers, research organization and researchers of the adjoining areas of the university.

Research is a major focal areas of the department, faculty and students have published two hundred research papers in scientific journals of national and international repute since the inception of department.

Research Facilities

The department has basic infrastructure to conduct research in the field of Plant Pathology. The department also using the facilities and expertise of crop disease research programe of the National Agriculture Research Centre, Islamabad. The laboratories are upgraded to provide maximum facilities to the students at department. In order to remain in touch with recent developments of Plant Pathology and related disciplines department subscribed scientific journals like Pakistan journal of Plant Pathology, Pakistan journal of Botany, Mycopathology and Pakistan journal of Nematology. Department has also up lated books on the subject in Department library in addition to the facilities of central library. Internet facilities also available at department.