The Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) has expressed its reservations on the composition of recently-constituted Research & Development Board of Rice (RDBR) and asked for taking the representative of the seed companies on board to ensure effective research for producing new rice seed varieties which can meet the international requirement and boost the yield.
It may be mentioned here that the government recently constituted Research & Development (R&D) Board of Rice for carrying out research to develop new 'Basmati' varieties having longer grain length with good taste, aroma and high yield potential with acceptable milling recovery.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Saturday said that the rice exporters' delegation which attended the first meeting of the Board felt absence of any representative of the Seed Association of Pakistan (SAP) strongly. Though, they could not raise the issue at the meeting but later Senior Vice Chairman REAP Shahjahan Malik wrote a letter to Director Rice Research Institute (RRI) Kala Shah Kaku to take notice of it.
"Keeping in view the composition of members of the subject board, we feel that the representative of Seed Association should be included in the said board," said the letter by the REAP Senior Vice Chairman.
The letter suggested inviting Seed Association of Pakistan representative for future meeting as member of the Research & Development Board of Rice. The sources privy to the first meeting told this scribe that seed is the most crucial and basic input to increase crop yields. The good seed also increases the efficiency of the factor of crop production. "We think that the Seed Association's member companies were already conducting research for development of new varieties and they could give better feedback and solid input to carry out research under the umbrella of this new board in an effective way," they concluded.
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