Chinese, local experts to work on new varieties of seed
A farmer holds hybrid red chili pepper seeds on his palm as he plants saplings, in Kunri, Umerkot, Pakistan, March 18, 2022. Devastating floods across Pakistan in August and September after several years of high temperatures, have left chilli farmers struggling in a country heavily dependent on agriculture, where officials have estimated $40 billion of flood damages. "When I was a child, the heat was never so intense. We used to have a plentiful crop, now it has become so hot, and the rains are so scarce that our yields have dwindled," farmer Leman Raj, 40, said. REUTERS
The agricultural experts have called for joint research by the local and Chinese private sector with the academia to come up with certified seeds of new varieties. At an event organized by Seed Production and Development Center (SPDC) of Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) on Sunday, the speakers also requested the Sindh government to increase the agriculture research budget by 20%.
The Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Fateh Marri said though the agriculture sector has supported the country in many periods of crisis since the independence in 1947, the crop productivity in Pakistan is far behind the per acre yield in the developed world.
Marri told that the SAU in collaboration with the provincial agriculture department is producing varieties of the seeds of wheat and other crops to enhance the crop yield. The Agriculture Research Sindh (ARS) Director General Noor Muhammad Baloch informed that they have introduced 13 new varieties of wheat seed.
“At present we are suffering from more than 40% seed deficiency of the wheat crop alone.” The progressive farmer Muhammad Nawaz Nizamani offered his agricultural lands in Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan, Badin or at Sujawal districts to the SAU and to a Chinese seed company for research on seed expansion and hybrid seed.