Surplus rice seed available for 2019-20 sowing season

Data reveals available seed may suffice for three crops

ISLAMABAD: For the 2019-20 Kharif sowing season, the total amount of available paddy seed is 50,192 metric tons (mt), including 2,757 metric tons of imported seeds, which is 121.28 per cent of the requirement of 41,385 metric tons.

According to official data, the total availability of paddy seed had been 74,485 metric tons, 135 per cent of the total demand, for the 2018-19 sowing season.

The data also revealed that Punjab has 41,975 metric tons of paddy seed available which is 174.83 per cent of its demand, Sindh has 5,290 metric tons, 39.74 per cent of the provincial demand, while Balochistan has 170 metric tons of seed available which is just 5.62 per cent of its demand.

For the sowing of the maize crop in 2019-20, public and private sector seed agencies procured about 32,599 metric tons of seed, including 7,799 metric tons of imported seed, which is around 112.83 per cent of the total requirement of 28,892 metric tons.

The maize seed availability during the year 2018-19 had been 32,599 metric tons which was 98 perc ent of the total demand for that year.

The provincial breakdown for the availability of maize seed indicated that it is 24,567 metric tons in Punjab, 144.77 per cent of its demand, whereas, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it is 234 metric tons which is just 1.99 per cent of its provincial demand.

The data also tells us that, for the sowing of the 2019-20 Kharif crop of the ‘mung’ bean, the total seed availability is 1,401 metric tons which is only 32 per cent of the total requirement.

In Punjab, public and private sector seed agencies have procured 1,261metric tons of the seed, just 32.35 per cent of its requirement, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 140 metric tons which is 62.25 per cent of its required amount. APP