Horticulture is one of the most important disciplines of agriculture. The production and returns from horticultural crops are high as compared to other crops. The horticultural crops, fruits, vegetables and flowers possess export potential to earn foreign exchange.
The Department of Horticulture imparts quality education to students in the Sindh and Balochistan provinces and researches fruits, vegetables, flowers, and ornamental plants. The department comprises 8 subject experts, including 4 Ph.D. teachers with expertise in fruits, vegetables, and floriculture. The Department of Horticulture offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs to meet the province’s trained manpower needs. Apart from this, the department imparts training in various aspects of Horticulture. A program to provide quality fruits, vegetables, and flowers of true-type varieties is also ongoing. Seed production programs for flowers and vegetables have been initiated in the department.
Post-harvest processing, packaging, and marketing to improve infrastructures and opportunities for farmers, breeding horticultural crops to develop new high-yielding varieties, and in vitro propagation for vegetative multiplication of plants are other steps in the line. The department provides advisory services to fruit and vegetable growers. Research into farming problems is also underway, involving graduate and postgraduate students.
Objectives
The main objective is to train both undergraduate and postgraduate students in production, postharvest techniques improvement, storage, processing and marketing of horticultural crops produces as well as in landscape and aesthetic environmental impact. The specific objectives are: .
• Provide educational opportunities for the pursuit of careers in horticulture.
• Improve the quality, variety, and the availability of horticultural products to achieve global gap certification for export.
• Strengthen the competitive position of Sindh’s horticulture industry.
• Popularize high density planting concept for achieving higher & quality production of mango.
• Develop technology for production of certified stock and saplings.