Guard Agriculture launches trials of new 'Super Hybrid Rice' variety

Guard Agricultural Research & Services (Pvt) Limited has launched the trials of a new "Super Hybrid Rice" variety having potential to produce rice up to 180 maunds per acre. "We are launching the trials of this variety by sowing it over an area of 100 acres of land in Badin District (Sindh) in the batches of 10 acres to test its potential in Pakistani climate," said Guard Agri's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shahzad Ali Malik while talking to Business Recorder here on Saturday.
Guard Agri, having achieved full technology transfer in hybrid rice seed is by far the market leader in the seed market with 74.2% share, reflecting the strength of the company as a research oriented organization.
Last year, the company tested another Hybrid variety called 403, developed by the Longping Company of China, in the same area, which produced remarkable results and given yield even more than what it given in China. That Hybrid rice produced 135-140 maunds per acre of production in Pakistan. The new variety being put in to trial this year is also developed by the same Chinese Company which is also working in agricultural research in collaboration with Guard Agri in Pakistan.
Malik said that after success of the new variety, which is yet to be named for Pakistan, Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) will conduct two years trial of it and then with the approval of Variety Evaluation Committee, it can be offered for commercial sowing. He claimed that Guard Agri is the only company in Pakistan doing basic research and development in new Basmati and non Basmati Rice varieties. Guard Agri has a nationwide seed distribution network backed by full technical support services to the farmer.
He hoped that the hybrid rice seed coverage from the present 25-30% to over 50% in the next three years. He said that with the success of different hybrid rice a big boost is expected in the production which is at present is around 4.5 million tons per annum. It may be mentioned here that in hybrid rice, around 90% of the area planted with the long-grain seed lies in Sindh while the remaining 10% is cultivated in south Punjab.