by Staff Report.

LAHORE – The Punjab Seed Council has approved 20 new seed varieties of wheat, cotton, potato and rice.

The decision was taken at a meeting held on Tuesday with Minister for Agriculture & Chairman Punjab Seed Council Syed Ashiq Hussain Kirmani in the chair.

Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture Usama Khan Leghari and Secretary of Agriculture Iftikhar Ali Sahoo also attended the meeting.

During the meeting, five new varieties of wheat (Champion, Falak, Sawera, Wafaq, and Chenab), five new varieties of cotton (Tara, FH-416, Najibi PF, CEMB-AAS 3), four new varieties of potato, and six new varieties of rice were approved.

Ashiq Kirmani said that the government was committed to providing farmers with high-quality and certified seeds. He emphasized that the government’s focus was on eliminating fake and substandard seeds. He said that seed varieties already available in the market would not be approved.

He directed a short listing of all cotton seed varieties and gave a presentation of the top three. He directed convening the next meeting in March and holding future meetings every three months.

Iftikhar Ali Sahoo highlighted the key role of the private sector in the seed business, stating that formulating any policy without the involvement of the private sector would not be in the best interest of the agriculture sector.

Published Date: February 26, 2025