Quality seeds of rice, wheat and cotton: Body set up to carry out research

LAHORE: The Governor Punjab Baligh ur Rehman has constituted a committee to carry out the latest research for the development of quality seeds of rice, wheat and cotton with people from the private sector and from academia on board this platform.

The PU Vice Chancellor on the directions of the Governor who is also chancellor of the university has appointed Shahzad Ali Malik, a big name from the rice sector as the convener of this committee as Rice Expert.

While Prof Dr Muhammad Arshad Javed, Chairman Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics as the plant breeder, Prof. Dr Abdul Qayyum Rao from the National Centre of Excellence of Molecular Biology as a cotton expert, Dr Nasim Ahmad Yasin from the PU as the Field Experiment Expert will be the members of this five-member committee.

Prof Dr Shakil Ahmad of the Punjab University will act as Secretary and member of this committee.

Shahzad Ali Malik who had also headed the Punjab Rice Research & Development Company in the past and the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) while talking to Business Recorder said that to attain food security we do not need to increase land under cultivation.

Rather, he observed that we need such potent quality seeds which can increase our per-acre yield. He recalled that collaboration of his own company with the Chinese counterparts brought such hybrid rice seeds to Pakistan, which doubled the per acre yield in Sindh resulting in prosperity of the farmers and making available more rice to export.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023