LAHORE – Guard Agricultural Research and Services has announced Rs30 million cash reward for the breeders for developing high yielding wheat, cotton and rice seeds.
Shafi Malik Plant Breeders award of Rs10 million each will be given to the scientists for developing seeds of three major crops – wheat, cotton and rice.
Rice Research and Development Board chairman and Guard Agricultural Research and Services chief executive officer Shahzad Ali Malik has said that breeders of wheat, cotton and rice crops whose product will exhibit acceptance among farmers, millers and the market and perform as per its traits for consecutive three years will be eligible for the award. The award will go to the individuals and not to any organization irrespective of the affiliation of the breeder with the private or public sector.
Addressing a press conference at his office on Wednesday, Mr Malik, the recipient of Sitara-i-Imtiaz for introducing hybrid rice in Pakistan, said that the purpose of the initiative was to support the most ignored segment in the agricultural value chain i.e., “breeders” which could bring about a revolution in the sector by evolving new high yielding seed varieties with resistance against different diseases and climatic changes. The Company’s senior executive Seed Division Momin Ali Malik, GM (Agriculture) Rizwan Younis and senior officials of the company were also present on this occasion.
“Availability of land per capita is decreasing in Pakistan. As such, we need to grow more on less land to feed ever-increasing population and make a surplus for export to fetch much-needed foreign exchange”, he said. Out of five major field crops, he said, only rice and maize were showing good performance due to high-yield varieties with the main contribution by the private sector.
“Maize is seeing phenomenal growth due to contributions by foreign companies. Rice’s success story is due to efforts by the national companies including Guard which introduced hybrid seeds in the country”, he said.
He said the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) took the lead and approved an incentive of Rs 10 million for the rice breeders in 2021 and the new award will be in addition to that. He urged the All Pakistan Textiles Mills Association (APTMA) and Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) to also come forward and announce lucrative incentives for breeders of cotton and wheat. He urged the government to encourage plant breeders with lucrative cash reward and suggested that it should be Rs50 million.
Pakistan is currently importing cotton, wheat, edible oil, pulses and other agro-commodities to the tune of approximately 14-15 billion dollars annually. The introduction of higher-yielding varieties in these crops through incentivizing breeders would result in import substitution and help in substantially reducing the trade deficit.
GUARD’s Research & Development Chief Dr. Abdul Rasheed and Chinese company Yuan Longping representative also threw light on efforts being made for evolving new high-yielding extra-long-grain and basmati varieties with resistance to diseases, drought and heat.
