Islamabad, Pakistan
October 8, 2020
A meeting of Variety Evaluation Committee (VEC) for recommendation of newly developed crop fodder varieties, was held at Pakistan Agriculture Research Council on this Thursday. The meeting which was started off by Chairman, PARC, Dr. Muhammad Azeem Khan. After thorough evaluation, the committee approved seed varieties of 55 Maize hybrid (3-29% yield potential) out of 74 for general cultivation.
Dr. Azeem Khan, the Chairman PARC remarked that Maize is success story in Pakistan and urged to use success story of Maize as a role model for other crops in the country. He also added that with the increasing livestock population, the fodder requirements are also increasing and Maize, Sorghum, Millet are majorly grown fodder crops during summers. Moreover, Insect attack on fodder crops is one of the major limiting factors for booming livestock industry of the country. In this setting, close collaboration of PARC with public-private seed sectors for exponential growth of Maize is highly appreciable.
Dr. Muhammad Ali Member (PSD) / Chairman VEC, PARC told that various public sector companies also participated and presented their hybrids before VEC and it is an encouraging move that two hybrids from public sector (MMRI, Yousafwala and University of Faisalabad) were also recommended. These hybrids produced 7% higher than the check.
Development of Nutritional Maize such as PBproA-2017, elimination of the obligation of spot in fodder, implementation of DNA fingerprinting and provision of seed with their descriptors were some of the suggestions made during the meeting.
Dr. Azeem added while concluding the meeting, the fodder crops will cater to the needs and aspirations of the livestock farmers to overcome yield constraints like stalk rot and stem borers besides saving the national exchequer by shortening the gap between requirement and availability of livestock feed. The Chairman also appreciated the role of PARC coordination to build the trust of people on the system in private sector in particular dedication of Coordinator, MSMF & OC, Dr. Mozammil Hussain for convening the VEC meeting.
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