The Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology, also known as NIAB, ( ur, ) is an agriculture and food irradiation national research institute managed by the

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) (Urdu: ) is a federally funded independent governmental agency, concerned with research and development of nuclear power, promotion of nuclear science, energy conservation and the peaceful usage of nuclea ...

. Along with Nuclear Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), the NIAB reports directly to the PAEC Biological Science Directorate whose current member is Abdul Rashid. The current director is Dr.Muhammad Hamed, and it is located in

Faisalabad Faisalabad (; Punjabi/ ur, , ; ), formerly known as Lyallpur (Punjabi, Urdu: لائل پور), named after the founder of the city, but was renamed in 1977 in honour of late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. It is the 3rd largest city of Pakis ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

History

The NIAB was established by

Ishrat Hussain Usmani Ishrat Hussain Usmani () ‎ (15 April 1917 – 17 June 1992) , best known as I. H. Usmani, was a Pakistani atomic physicist, and later a public official who chaired the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) from 1960 to 1971 as well as ...

when PAEC established its first Biological Science Directorate in 1965. In 1967, with the efforts led by dr.

Abdus Salam Mohammad Abdus Salam Salam adopted the forename "Mohammad" in 1974 in response to the anti-Ahmadiyya decrees in Pakistan, similarly he grew his beard. (; ; 29 January 192621 November 1996) was a Punjabi Pakistani theoretical physicist and a ...

, the

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

approved a project, and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission began its construction. The operations and research began in 1970, and it was officially inaugurated by

Munir Ahmad Khan Munir Ahmad Khan ( ur, ; 20 May 1926 – 22 April 1999), , was a Pakistani nuclear reactor physicist who is credited, among others, with being the "father of the atomic bomb program" of Pakistan for their leading role in developing their nati ...

, then Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, on April 6, 1972. Khan later developed the institute and led the research activities in the institution. The nuclear medical research was also put under Khan, and NIAB had developed 23 different crop varieties, which are high yielding; they are disease resistant and are being cultivated throughout the country. At first, the institute was mandate to create and maintain new genetic material for sustained agriculture development and to conduct research on applied problems in the field of agriculture and biology using nuclear and other related techniques.

Facilities

The institute is equipped with well-equipped laboratories having facilities. The institute currently operates ⁶⁰ Co irradiation sources, gas chromatographs, Photo-documentation system, and atomic absorption.Facilities
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References

External links

{{Authority control Energy in Pakistan Nuclear technology in Pakistan Pakistan federal departments and agencies Science and technology in Pakistan Project-706 Nuclear weapons programme of Pakistan Nuclear organizations Food safety organizations Constituent institutions of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Organisations based in Faisalabad 1972 establishments in Pakistan