Pakistan Agriculture Research Council has distributed about 200 tons of five high-yielding disease resistant and climate tolerant seed varieties in order to achieve higher per-acre output of major staple food crop in the country.
The seed have been distributed among the progressive farmers, field extensions and small scale growers with a primary focus to raise high quality certified seeds to meet its future requirements, said Chairman Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) Dr Muhammad Azeem Khan.
Talking to APP here on Wednesday, he said that the seed varieties that have been provided to farmers included Pak-2013, Zincol, Borlaug 2016, Markaz 2019 and Dara 2020.
These were breeder seeds that would have multiplier impact for realising the need of certified seeds and help in producing and bringing a vast area under high yielding seed varieties production, he added.
Dr Azeem said that PARC being an apex research and development institute of the country was striving hard to provide scientific and research-based solutions to farming communities in order to make the agriculture and livestock sectors more profitable and attractive.
He said that about 400,000 tons of certified seeds comprising on 35-40 per cent of local requirements would be available with public sector to tackle with the Rabi season needs.
Besides, the seed was also available with farmers and private seed companies in order to fulfill the requirements, he said adding that efforts were on to ensure availability of certified seed to enhance per-acre crop yield.
Chairman PARC further informed that wheat sowing during current season was expected to enhance by 2-3 per cent in irrigated areas in the country, adding that increase in the minimum support price and incentive package for Rabi crop had encouraged the farmers to grow more crop during the season.
However, he said that wheat sowing may reduce in rain-fed areas due to long dry spell but the sowing could gain momentum by receiving the rain.
He said that if the other conditions remained same, it was expected that the wheat output targets of 26.78 million tons set for current season would be achieved which help to attain self sufficiency in wheat.
It may be recalled here that Federal Committee on Agriculture had fixed the wheat production targets at 26.78 million tons by cultivating the crop over 9.16 million hectares.
Originally published at The nation