PARC starts campaign to promote hybrid rice cultivation

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) in collaboration with Chinese hybrid rice seeds research organization has initiated a campaign to promote hybrid seed cultivation across the crop growing areas of the country.

The main aim of this joint initiative was to enhance per acre crop productivity, increase profitability and produce surplus commodity for exports enhancement.

In this regard, an official of the council told APP here Friday that both the countries have decided to work together for conducting joint awareness programmes to adopt hybrid rice seeds.

The Chinese scientists are scheduled to train 30 Pakistani agriculture scientists, selected from all the four provinces.

Besides, he said that they will also impart training to the members of the provincial field extension departments on hybrid rice cultivation.

They would also organize road-shows and field visits across the rice-growing areas to address the issues and challenges in promotion of hybrid rice seed, he added.

He further informed that the a revolutionary hybrid rice seed was recently developed by the Chinese researchers, which would help Pakistani farmers to enhance significantly their per acre yield.

The new developed rice seed variety would help to produce extra surplus, hence the country would be able to export more rice for exporting it to other countries, he added.

He said a travelling seminar has also been designed by PARC and Chinese Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture Company to travel in all the four ecological zones of the country in Khyber Pukhtunkhawa, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan.

The main objective of the seminar was to estimate the local hybrid seed requirements for different regions and showcase the hybrid rice varieties, he remarked.

In addition, he said that the other aim if the activity was the capacity building of the local experts from all over the country in order to promote the hybrid rice techniques.

High level Chinese team comprising on 12 top hybrid rice experts will be the part of this travelling rice seminar, he added.