LAHORE: The Punjab Seed Council (PSC) on Friday approved 56 new varieties of different crops submitted by the private and public sector organizations.
The approved varieties included paddy, hybrid maize, oats, gram, groundnut, rye, sunflower, sesame, berseem, dates, wheat and cotton. It was the 56th session of the Punjab Seed Council (PSC) which was held with Punjab Minister for Trade, Industries and Energy S M Tanveer in the chair.
The provincial minister gave approval for the general cultivation of 56 new varieties while directing to submit DNA fingerprint reports of seven different crop varieties within 15 days.
Speaking on this occasion, the minister said the government of Punjab was taking all possible steps to ensure the supply of quality agricultural inputs to the farmers to achieve the production targets.
The minister directed to set up of a sub-committee “Green Revolution 2” to review the problems faced in various types of crops. He also congratulated agricultural scientists for developing these varieties and directed to further improve the research trials for the future in the Punjab Seed Council. He also directed for making variety registration and DNA fingerprinting mandatory for the approval of agricultural commodity types.
He further said the government was paying special attention to the production of quality seeds to increase the agricultural production per acre with world-class seeds, which will also increase domestic exports.
Secretary of Agriculture Wasif Khursheed emphasized introducing modern harvesting technology. He urged agricultural scientists to discover varieties that could be profitable for five years or more in the field while keeping production costs low. He said that new varieties of crops with resistance were being prepared so that the attack of diseases on the crops is minimized and the agricultural production per acre can be increased.
He said instead of discovering more types, such types should be discovered which could give better results in the field. Apart from traditional agriculture, there were opportunities to increase the production of dates and fruits in our country.
The agriculture secretary declared the DNA fingerprinting report mandatory to protect the rights of pure seeds and breeders’ rights.
In the meeting, the Punjab Seed Council including Special Secretary Agriculture (Marketing) Punjab Kulsoom Hai, MD Punjab Seed Corporation Shan-ul-Haq and a large number of members and breeders from the public and private sectors participated.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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