Hazra Agriculture Research Statstion (HARS), Abbotabad

Introduction:

Hazara Agriculture Research Station comes under the Ministry of Agriculture Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. HARS was previously named as Potato Research Centre, Abbottabad and was established in 1978 with the assistance of German Technical Cooperation GtZ. The efforts were started in this regards with the approval of PC-I for the project “Establishment of Research Centre for the production of Pre-Basic and certified Seed Potatoes in N.W.F.P” in 1978 with the tremendous efforts from Dr. Mentz who surveyed the proposed area for project along with the project team from 1976-77. . Two research farms i.e. Seed Potato Research and multiplication farm Battakundi and Potato screening farm Sharan and a Tissue culture Lab/Green house in Abbottabad were established to achieve the following objectives.

• To achieve self sufficiency. Potato being the most important vegetable crop grown and used all the year round and is also gaining importance as a food crop.
• Increasing the production of potato by 30% with the use of disease free certified seed of high yielding varieties.
• Lowering the cost of production and stabilizing the market with the introduction of high yielding varieties.

Potato Research centre was renamed as Hazara Agriculture research station in 2005 due to the fact that after the completion of potato project phase the centre was successfully developing a landmark in the fields of fruit plant species, varieties collection and multiplication, vegetable seed production and tissue culture technology.

Official Message

The strategic trust of the medium term development framework is on the development of knowledge economy envisioned. It is envisaged to raise the productivity and competitiveness of agriculture, industry and services sector through science based interventions. In the agriculture sector, the trust is on improved productivity, profitability and diversification into high value agriculture, value addition, marketing and export, efficient use of resources and sustainable natural management. Keeping in view the climatic changes, the implementation of aforementioned reform initiatives owes to the strategic visioning and guidance of Ministry of Agriculture, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the capacity of agriculture secretariat and commitment of HARS scientists to achieve prosperity in the rural Pakistan through excellence in agriculture research. The farmers of Pakistan deserve no less than the best of scientific solutions to improve their farm productivity and profitability.

Objectives

• Development of best practices and improved technologies for horticultural crops.

• Fostering the production of horticultural crops and enhancing their true to type propagation.
• Production of pre-basic seed Potato and plant material for further multiplication.
• Development, selection and introduction of new and improved varieties with greater yield potential keeping in view their suitability in adoption, quality and resistance against various Biotic and Abiotic stresses.
• Minimizing the post harvest losses.
• Conducting adaptive research trials for technology transfer.

Future Plans

1.Breeding program of various vegetables like tomato ,poatao and pea.

2.Introduction and evaluation of exotic germplasm of various fruit plants including citrus,apple ,lyche etc

3.To produce disease free seed potato by tissue culture techniques.

4.Provision of high quality seed potato on large scale to

farmers and to the market

5.Production of French bean ,Peas ,onion and other vegetable seeds

6.To supervise students of various universities of Pakistan in completion of their Bs ,Ms and Phd programme.

7.To conduct various seminars ,workshops and training programmes for the local farmers and scientists as well.

Achievements

• New variety of orange has been released in 2015 named HARS MALTA
• Establishment of Germplasm Units for Horticulture in Hazara (ASPL-II).
• Development of Post harvest Technology for fruits and vegetables in NWFP (ASPL-II).
• National Cooperative Research Program on Potato (PARC).
• True Potato Seed Project (PARC).
• Causes & control of fruit skin cracking in Litchi.
• Barani Area Development Project-II.
• Adaptive research on selected vegetables to grow in off season to increase farmers’ income in Malakand and Hazara Division.
• Block plantation of selected fruits in the marginal steep hills of Malaknad and Hazara Division.
• Conservationevaluation and commercialization of extinguishing indigenous fruit verities.
• Vegetables seed production and nursery fruit plants production in five selected stations of KPK.

Publications

1. Gul, Z., M. Ahmed, Z. U. Khan, B. Khan, M. Iqbal. 2016. Evaluation of tomato lines against Septoria leaf spot under field conditions and its effect on fruit yield. Agricultural Sciences 7 : 181-186.
2. Maria S, Muhammad NA, Bilal AK, Mazhar I, Mehboob A, Sheikh SA, Rizwan US.Effects of Soil Fluoride On growth       and quality of two tomato varieties grown in Peshawar, Pakistan.Fluoride.2015
3. Jabeen, S., S. Alam, M. Saleem, W. Ahmad, R. Bibi, F.S. Hamid, H.U. Shah. 2015. Withering timings affect the total free amino acids and mineral contents of tea leaves during black tea manufacturing. Arabian Journal of Chemistry. doi:10.1016/j.arabjc.2015.03.011 
4. Ahmad,M., Khan, S., Ahmad, F., Shah, N.H., Akhtar, N.2010. Evaluation of 99 S1 line of maize for inbreeding depression. Pakistan journal of agricultural sciences. 47(3): 209-213.
5. Khan, S., Ahmad,M.,Ghaffar, M., Fida,M., Swati, Z.A.2010. In vitro micro-propagation of indigenous chick pea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivars, KK-1 and Hassan-2K. African journal of Agricultural Research.       5(21):2934-2938. 
6. Muhammad K., Gul, Z.,Jamal,Z., Ahmad, M.,Rehman, A.K., Khan, Z.U.2015. Effect of coconut water from different maturity stages as a natural substitute for synthetic PGR in in vitro potato micro propagation. International Journal of Biosciences. 6( 2): 84-92.
7. Ahmad,M., Gul, Z., Khan,Z.U.,Iqbal,M.,Khan,B.,Saleem, M.,Ullah,I.2015. Study of heterosis in different cross combinations of Tomato for yield and yield components. International Journal of Biosciences. 7( 2) : 12-18.
8. Ahmad,M., Khan,B.A., Iqbal,M., Khan,Z.U., Kanwal,A.,Saleem, M., Khurshid,I..2015. Genetic analysis of F1 generation of tomato for quantitative traits. Advances in Life Science and Technology.39:1-6.
9. Ahmad,M., Khan,B.A., Iqbal,M., Khan,Z.U., Shahid,M., Saleem, M., Khan,N.I.2016. Genetic analysis of F2 population of tomato for studying quantitative traits in the cross Bushbeef x Nagina.Journal of Research in Biology.       6(1): 1922-1927 
10. Gul, Z., Ahmad,M., Khan,Z.U.,Khan,B., Iqbal,M.2016. Evaluation of Tomato Lines against Septoria Leaf Spot under Field Conditions and Its Effect on Fruit Yield. Agricultural Sciences. 7: 181-186.
11.  
12. Ahmad,M.,Gul,Z., Iqbal,M., Khan,B.A., Khan,Z.U., Shahid,M., Rehman,A.2016. Comparative study of effect of TYLCV and Septoria blight on F3 tomato lines. International Journal of Biosciences.8(5):229-235.
13. 12. Wazir, A., Z. Gul, M. Hussain, Z. U. Khan, M. Saleem, I. Khurshid. 2015. Effect of sucrose on inducing in vitro microtuberization in potato without using any growth hormone. International Journal of Agronomy and Agricultural Research 7(1): 118-124.
14. Muhammad, K., Z. Gul, Z. Jamal, M. Ahmed, A.R. Khan and Z.U. Khan. 2015. Effect of coconut water from different fruit maturity stages, as natural substitute for synthetic PGR in in vitro potato micropropagation. International Journal of Biosciences 6 (2): 84-92.
15. ILYAS A., S.Sittar, I. Khurshid., A. Akbar Comparative Efficacy of Synthetic Insecticides and Botanical Extracts against Diamondback Moth (Plutella Xylostella) (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) in Cauliflower. european academic research Vol. II, Issue 5/ August 201 
16. I. KHURSHID 1 , J. ALAM 2 , A. ALI 3 , Hidayat Ullah *3 , Abur RAQIB 1 , Gul NA Population trend of corn leaf aphid (Rhopalosiphum maidis.) with different chemical doses in three maize varieties. Biological Diversity and Conservation ISSN 1308-8084 Online; (2013) 1-7.