NIA develops sugarcane that requires less water gives more juice

TANDOJAM:

Nuclear Institute of Agriculture (NIA) has developed sugarcane variety that needs less water and gives higher yield in addition to disease resistant wheat, an official of the institute said on Annual Farmers Day.

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) Chairman Dr Raja Ali Raza Anwar said that NIA is providing quality products and useful advice to the farmers of Sindh since 1998.

PAEC experts are running 19 cancer hospitals across the country and they are providing relief to the people in the agricultural sector, he said speaking at the Annual Farmers Day of NIA.

He said that food security, climate change, pest attacks particularly locust swarms are all challenges for the NIA and its experts are here to find solution to these perils.

PAEC Member Bio Science Dr Masood Iqbal while addressing said that the research results of agricultural experts should reach to farmers. More crops cannot be obtained by increasing the use of water fertilizer paste. Rather, they can get a better yield through better crop management.

NIA Director Dr Mehboob Ali Siyal said the institute has given 35 various agricultural commodities, in which their sugarcane seed gives high yield in less water. He said that they are working with 11 sugar mills of Sindh.

Similarly, NIA produced two new seed varieties of wheat that are disease -resistant and giving better yield.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2023.