Punjab Agriculture Minister Syed Hussain Jahania Gardezi has said that there is a dire need to discover new varieties of cotton seeds which can cope with climate change besides reducing the chances of insects attack on the crop.
He said this while attending Memorandum of Un-derstanding (MoU) singing ceremony between Cen-ter of Excellence in Molecular Biology, Punjab University and Punjab Seed Corporation on promo-tion and sale of transgenic varieties of cotton seeds in Lahore.
The minister congratulated the scientists of the Center of Excellence in Molecular Biology, Punjab University on the discovery of transgenic varieties (CKC-1, CKC-3etc.).
He said that the discovery of transgenic varieties of cotton was a major achievement of this institute and the agreement would prove to be an important milestone for the rehabilitation of cotton.
Punjab Seed Corporation Managing Director Fazl ur Rehman said that under this agreement, transgenic varieties of cotton would be multiplied on Punjab Seed Corporation farms and sold to farmers, which would reduce pest infestation on cotton crop in future and increase cotton productivity.
Center of Excellence in Molecular Biology Director Ahmed Ali Shah said that the institute has so far discovered six new transgenic varieties of cotton.
Scientists were making dedicated efforts to discover new varieties of cotton to enhance production, he added.
