ISLAMABAD, Jul 07 (APP): Chairman Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) Dr Ghulam Muhammad Ali on Saturday vowed to ensure availability of high yielding seed varieties of major and minor crops for farmers to attain self sufficiency in staple food output.
Talking to APP, he said that the Council had developed high yielding and diseases resistant seed varieties of different crops including oil seed, pulses and sugarcane for commercial cultivation.
He said that during the period under review, the Council had recommended 10 new high yielding genotypes of oilseed crops and 02 of sugarcane for commercial cultivation.
The initiative is aimed to enhance the pre-race output of oil seeds and reducing the reliance on imported edible oil which consumes billion of dollars annually, he said and added, the Variety Evaluation Committee (VEC) of the PARC had recommended 04 new sunflower hybrids, 03 mustard varieties/hybrids and 1 variety of each soybean, rapeseed and groundnut.
While 2 varieties of sugarcane for commercial cultivation in the potential ecologies were also approved by the committee, he remarked.
Meanwhile, he said, the VAC has also approved 10 high yielding pulses varieties to boost output of pulses in the country.
He said that the pulses were playing a crucial role in the global food security and nutrition of the country, adding that Pakistan needed 1.56 million tons of pulses annually.
We have become self-sufficient in mung production during 2021-22 which was 0.263 million tons against the total requirement of 0.180 million tons, he added.
These ten high-yielding pulses varieties poised to revolutionize the pulses output, he said adding that now the country is focusing on increasing the production of other pulse crops, such as chickpea, lentil and mash bean.
Out of the recommended 10 pulses varieties that included 05 chickpea and 01 mung bean variety of NIAB, Faisalabad, 01 lentil and 01 mung bean variety of Pulses Research Program, NARC, Islamabad, he said adding that 01 mung bean variety by Pulses Research Institute, AARI, Faisalabad and a mung bean variety of NIFA, Peshawar.
This achievement is due to the consistent backup support by PSDP, Pulses Project “Promoting Research for Productivity Enhancement in Pulses” to its research components throughout the country, he added.