Commercial launch of a hybrid rice from China in Pakistan having yield of 18 tons per hectare or more than 150 maunds per acre.
Chinese researchers have recently developed these revolutionary rice seed under the guidance of Professor Yuan Longping who is the leading scientist of agriculture and known as father of hybrid rice in the world.
The new rice variety would help to increase per acre yield for Pakistani farmers and increased export of rice to other countries, including China, in future.
“We will be pleased to share the new seed variety with our great friend which is Pakistan,” said the octogenarian Professor Yuan in a rare conversation with a group of journalists. The Guard Agriculture Research and Services (Pvt) Limited, pioneer in introducing hybrid rice in the country, and top agriculture research company of China, Yuan Longping Hi-Tech Industries.
Shah Rukh Malik and Rizwan Yousaf, Guard Group’s executives, said, “At present, China imports 30% to 40% of rice from Pakistan. The new rice variety will increase rice exports to the neighboring countries in the years to come.”
The Guard Group is taking pains to advance hybrid variety for regions of Punjab and has also launched awareness programs for farmers of Sindh and Balochistan to increase cultivation of hybrid rice in collaboration with Chinese researchers.
Both China and Pakistan currently sown around 7-8 tons per hectares that is 15% more than conventional yield of rice. Professor Yuan calling new variety his lifelong dream said that the seed was the hardest in commercial trials at large scale in terms of yield.
The father of hybrid rice for his contribution in ending the food crisis in the globe highly regarded in China and in the world. The United Nations (UN) Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the UN World Intellectual Property Organization, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) honoured him with different titles and awards in last four decades. He received World Food Prize 2004 for his landmark achievement for developing the genetic materials and technologies important for breeding hybrid rice varieties. He continues his innovative scientific work as Director-General of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center in Changsha, Hunan Province, China. As the first person to discover fast growth with greater yield and stress resistance he is acknowledged highly. He find a natural hybrid rice plant in 1964 that had advantages han others. He successfully grown a hybrid rice specie having 15 – 20 % more yield than the conventional ones in 1973.
Professor Yuan believed to increase area of hybrid rice from 200,000 hectares to 450,000 acres. He also visited ISKY that is founded in 1994, visit organized by Guard Group. ISKY is a major supplier of Sulphur and related chemicals to Asia, Africa, Americas, Europe and Oceania. The company management offered its full cooperation to Pakistan in the field of agriculture science.