LAHORE: Potato Research and Development Board Punjab Chairman Chaudhry Maqsood Ahmad Jutt expressing apprehension of the shortage of potato seed for the forthcoming potato growing season has urged the government to allow the import of high-quality potato seed from all countries rather than from Netherlands alone.
He said that shortage may lead to an increase in the prices of seed, thus increasing the cost of production of the growers and ultimately increase the prices of potato for the consumers. "At present, only two to three Pakistani companies are producing seed and they have fixed the price of a 50-kilogram potato seed bag at Rs 8500. If the local seed is available at this price then imported seed price will be far higher than it," Chaudhry Maqsood remarked while talking to Business Recorder here on Saturday.
He differed with the claims of the Punjab Agriculture Department claims that potato is sown over 400,000-450,000 acres of land in the province and said that it is sown over 1 million acres of land in the province. "Sowing target set by the agricultural department is met in potato zone comprising Kasur, Okara, Sahiwal, Pak Pattan, etc. "It is being grown in 33-34 districts of the province and the government has tightened the conditions of seed import due to which farmers will see a shortage," he added.
He pointed out that under the recently enforced Seed Act 2015 and Seed Business Rules 2015, the Ministry of National Food Security and Research has made it mandatory for all countries exporting potato seed to submit Pest Resistance Analysis (PRA) and only Holland qualifies. "In order to permit other countries to export the seed to Pakistan, the Ministry of National Food Security and Research needs to address this issue on an urgent basis since the potato sowing season is around the corner in Punjab," he added.
Jutt, who is also Vice President of Okara Potato Growers Cooperative Society, said that he had written a letter to the ministry, Federal Seed Certification Department and Plant Protection Department to withdraw this condition and allow import from all countries, which include China, Germany, New Zealand, UK and Denmark.
Similarly, he said that the condition of fresh registration of all the companies and showing a specific amount in the company account are also a big hurdle in the functioning of companies working in potato seed sale. He said that the government should declare that companies already approved for exporting potato seed to Pakistan should be exempted from the fresh registration.
He warned that if immediate steps are not taken then potato seed will not be available for the coming season, which will start from September 15-20 for early sowing and from the first week of October, which will lead to shortage of production and hardships for the end consumers.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020