Staff Reporter Islamabad
On visit of Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology at Faisalabad, Dr. Tariq Mahmood Shah Director NIAB welcomed the honorable chief guest Mr. Jamshed Iqbal Cheema, special assistant to PM on food security for sparing time to visit NIAB to see the ongoing R&D activities and field perform-ance of cotton and rice varieties.
SAPM on Food Security was accompanied with Chairman PARC, Dr. Muhammad Azeem Khan, Chief Executive PARB, Dr. Abid Mahmood, DG AARI, Dr. Muhammad Zaffar Iqbal, along with all HODs, Dr. Manzoor Hussain and other group lead-ers.
Mr. Jamshed Iqbal Cheema conducted the de-tailed visit of different cotton trials and discussed, in detail, regarding cotton breeding material.
He ap-preciated the performance of latest cotton varieties namely NIAB-SANAB-M, NIAB-512, NIAB-898 along-with earlier approved varieties like NIAB-KIRAN, NIAB-878B, NIAB-1048, NIAB-545, NIAB-1011.
Furthermore, he cherished the NIAB cotton material regarding their fiber traits; climate resilient traits especially heat tolerance and CLCuD resis-tance. Dr. Manzoor Hussain presented the Punjab seed corporation multiplication data and federal seed data showing the contribution of NIAB varie-ties in the multiplication targets.
Sharing views, Dr. Muhammad Azeem Khan Chairman PARC asked Dr. M. Kashif Riaz Khan to prepare a proposal amounting 15-20 Million Rs. on cotton improvement. He also visited the rice field and appreciated the efforts of rice breeders of NIAB and proposed to submit a proposal on aromatic rice improvement.
Moreover, the Chairman also appre-ciated the performance of early maturing mutants of super basmati and asked to include them in the na-tional uniform rice yield trials to observe their per-formance against the check cultivar 1121.
