Sindh government has spent Rs 140.266 million on developing new varieties of seeds during the last four years. This was told during a meeting of Sindh Seed Corporation (SSC), which was chaired by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah at the Chief Minister's House on Thursday.
Qaim said that his government was making all out efforts towards providing quality seeds to growers at affordable prices to improve per acre yield.
The meeting was attended by senior Minister for Finance Syed Murad Ali Shah, Minister for Agriculture Ali Nawaz Maher, Chief Secretary Siddique Memon, Principal Secretary to CM Alamuddin Bullo, Secretary Agriculture Shahid Gulzar Shaikh, Managing Director SSC Dr Iqbal Saeed and others.
While briefing the Chief Minister, the Agriculture Secretary said that there were eight basic seed farms of SSC, which were 2,898 acres Lodra (Shikarpur district) Farm, 372 acres Pai Sakrand (Nawabshah) Farm, 1,041 acres Setharja (Khairpur) Farm, 122 acres Kotdiji (Khairpur) Farm, 1,474 acres Ghotki Fram, 112.27 acres Ruk (Ghotki) Farm, 100 aces Sangi (Sukkur) Farm and 110 acres Lakhi (Shikarpur) Farm.
The SSC Managing Director said that different seed varieties had been provided to growers. The wheat varieties provided so far were TD-I, Kiran 95, Imdad 05, SKD-I and Benazir, IR-3701 of cotton and two varieties of paddy, Irri-6 and KS-282, he added.
He said that during the last four years (2011-2015), Rs 140.266 million had been spent on all the eight farms for developing seed varieties against which Rs 286.448 million was earned. Similarly, Rs 507.484 million was spent on the marketing of the seed, against which Rs 638.004 million income was generated.
In this way, he said that during the period the SSC utilised Rs 647.751 million against which, an income of Rs 924.452 million was generated.
The Chief Minister appreciated the efforts of the SSC and urged it to promote such seed verities which not only got less water but also survived in flood situation.
"Manila and Thailand have developed such varieties of rice which survive in flood situation. The seedling of such rice verities survive even after remaining in water for eight days," Qaim said.
The Secretary Agriculture said that there was about Rs 443.767 million liabilities against SSC, which included Hesco and Sesco bills, repair and maintenance of seed processing plants, and damages sustained at Lodra and Ghotki farms due to heavy flood of 2010.
The Chief Minister directed the Chief Secretary to look into the issues of SSC and submit a report so that required funds could be released to improve its performance and clear its liabilities.