Director: Prof. Dr. Shahina Fayyaz

National Nematological Reseach Centre

Pakistan is an agrarian country and likewise, agriculture is our economic forte. Agriculture has special significance for our country as more than 70 % populations is directly or indirectly dependent on this section. Agricultural crops suffer heavy damage due to several pests and diseases involving fungi, bacteria, viruses, insects and nematodes. Nematodes have been affecting man times immemorial as parasites of human beings, animals and pests. Plant parasitic nematodes are hidden enemies of crops and represent a unique challenge to agricultural research.

Director - NNRC

Nematology was first recognized as an independent discipline during the early part of the last century and since that time has made unparalleled advances to become an integral part of biological sciences. Nematology is a highly specialized field and requires the services of specialists in dealing with nematode diseases and other pests. In Pakistan Nematology as a new science with the frame work of plant protection disciplines was started around mid 1970s. The establishment of the National Nematological Research Centre (NNRC) in 1974 and Pakistan Society of Nematologists (PSN) in 1980 intensified the research in this field with the objective to impart high quality education, conducting problem-oriented research and transferring technology to solve the nematode disease problems of agricultural crops.

Several groups of nematodes inhibit soil; some of the best known nematodes are animal parasites such as heartworms, pinworms and hookworms. Another important group of nematodes parasitize plants, which results nearly $ 78 billion annual loss globally. Many nematode species are beneficial to agriculture and environment, e.g. some have proven to be important allies in the biological control of insects and other pests and some contribute to soil fertility by helping cycle nutrient through soil.

The NNRC is the only research as well as academic centre, solely associated with the study and research of Nematology in the country. NNRC with all its facilities for teaching and research has played an important role to impart training to M. Sc., M. Phil. / Ph.D. students of many departments like Bio-chemistry, Botany, Microbiology, Genetics, Agriculture, Biotechnology and Zoology. A post-graduate teaching program leading to M. Sc. and M. Phil. / Ph. D. degrees was started in 1980. NNRC is now by far the largest leading and the best-equipped research centre in Pakistan and has been recognized as one of the few specialized centers of the world in nematode taxonomy by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Since its inception, it has produced 7 Ph. Ds. Some of these showed excellent performance during their academic tenure and received several awards. At present ten post-graduate students are doing research work for their M. Phil. / Ph. D.

In Pakistan, National Nematological Research Centre has been doing research on every aspect of nematology with main emphasis on the Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) which was started in 1996. EPNs are beneficial nematodes used as bio-control agents against economically important crop pests. Use of EPNs in biological control and / or integrated pest management programs will contribute to minimizing current extensive usage of chemical pesticides in the country. Research on free-living marine nematodes has also been initiated in 1998 for bio-monitoring studies of meiofauna of marine sediments along the Arabian coastline. Moreover, molecular diagnosis for nematode identification is in progress after the establishment of a molecular laboratory at the centre. Recently research on nematode parasites of vertebrates has been initiated. In this regard nematode parasites of frog and fish are being investigated. This is the first step towards the initiation of research on the very important human parasitic nematodes.

The importance of nematodes is enormous particularly in the field of agriculture, medical, veterinary and environmental sciences. The foremost reasons being their importance to us is that they attack our: agricultural crops; live stocks and causing a multitude of diseases, to particularly every species of animals and plants and are equally studied by the biologists, ecologists, parasitologists, helminthologists, environmentalist, the geneticists. Structural, biological and habitat diversities of nematodes have made them immensely crucial for many varied types of studies. They are dealt under distinct and separate disciplines: Helminthology or Animal Nematology; Plant Nematology or Plant & soil Nematology; Marine Nematology; Insect Nematology; Veterinary sciences; Medical sciences; Molecular sciences; Agricultural sciences; Environmental sciences and biological sciences.