Production of corn seeds: Pakistan to achieve self-sufficiency

In a major boost to food security of the country, Pakistan is poised to become self-sufficient in production of corn hybrid seeds. The local seed companies have developed high yielding corn varieties while the local scientists of national companies associated with Seed Association of Pakistan (SAP) have emerged victorious by topping the National Uniform Yield Trials (NUYT) conducted by National Agriculture Research Council (NARC) for the last two years, claimed Shafiq Ur Rehman of Seed Association of Pakistan here on Friday.
Briefing Journalists at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Shafiq claimed that these trials are conducted in an impartial manner on ten different sites including lands of public sector research institutions, private local and multinational seed companies. Some of these multinational seed companies are world leaders in maize seed research and development. Giving details of national seed competition, he said, three corn hybrids namely SB-9663, SB-9617 & SB-9618 of a national seed company Kissan Seed Corporation got top three positions in competition of Yellow Maize Hybrids in spring 2017.
The highest production recorded by these locally produced seeds was as high as 10.265 tons per hectare, he added. This record production is more than double of the present average corn production in the country. Similarly, he maintained, another hybrid seed variety namely CS-240 from a national company Petal Seed Company of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) produced top yield and got first position in NUYT competition of Yellow and White Maize Hybrids in spring 2016, producing average production of 9.905 tons per hectare. SAP spokesman was of the view that these promising results show that local competitive genetic material (germplasm) is sufficiently available in the country to produce high-quality hybrid corn seeds for the spring season. Presently, we are importing these hybrid corn seeds from various countries, spending billions of rupees foreign exchange, he explained.
Shafiq, who is CEO of KSC, elaborated that locally produced hybrid seed was already acclimatized to local conditions as well as have vigor to resist against pest and disease attacks. Especially, unlike foreign competing seed varieties, locally produced corn hybrids are capable of tolerating high temperatures, he said and adding such characteristics of local hybrid seeds have brighten the prospects of multiplying the maize production in the country. This seed is available to the farmers at affordable prices, he maintained. He proudly said that out of about 200 members, many SAP companies are conducting basic seed research for developing genetic material. We have been blessed with huge genetic material for breeding of hybrid seed in addition to running processing units and a network of state of the art seed testing labs.