By Faiza Tehseen ISLAMABAD, May 23 (INP-WealthPK): The Oilseeds Research Institute (ORI), Faisalabad, has developed sunflower hybrid varieties from its own breeding material – A, B & R lines – which are better adaptable to local climate and can give about 35% more yield than the imported seeds. The hybrids were introduced at an online seminar held at the Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI), Faisalabad, recently. The hybrid varieties have been produced under the National Oilseed Enhancement Programme. Sunflower is a potential oilseed crop, which can enhance edible oil production in Pakistan as the country spends a large amount of foreign exchange annually on edible oil imports. To fulfil the local needs and cut the import bill, it is important for Pakistan to promote the oilseed crops, especially sunflowers. The sunflower market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.5% by the year 2027 in Asia Pacific zone. Talking to WealthPK, Dr Tariq Mahmood, a chief scientist at ORI, said the main cause of increase in the edible oil import bill was less extraction in Pakistan. “Our local production of edible oil is just 0.8%. There is a dire need to increase our production levels,” he underscored, stressing that promotion of mechanisation was need of the hour to reduce the oilseed extraction cost. “Commercialisation of sunflower hybrids through public-private partnership is direly needed.” Speakign on the occasion, Dr Muhammad Nawaz Khan, Director General for Research at AARI, stated that annually, Pakistan spends about $4 million on edible oil imports. “Farmlands in Pakistan are fertile for oilseed production. Pakistan will have to promote and boost production of oilseeds to have enough quantities of edible oil to meet the local needs and also export the product.” Meanwhile, talking to WealthPK, Hafiz Saad Bin Mustafa, an oilseed scientist from AARI, said that ORI Faisalabad had taken a revolutionary step by introducing the locally-developed hybrid varieties of sunflower. “Sunflower is cultivated at about 100,000 hectares of area in Pakistan, but the yields are not good because the foreign varieties are not adaptable to local weather.” “Imported hybrid seed is less adaptable to local weather, leading to low yields. Realising this fact, ORI has developed local hybrids to have better yield. Demonstration plots have been set up in different locations of Punjab to experiment the hybrid varieties, which have been approved by the Punjab Seed Council,” Saad Mustafa informed WealthPK. He said that imported seeds available in the market were too expensive for the farmers as prices varied from Rs7,000 to Rs12,000 per two kilogramme bag. “However, the locally-produced seed will be vailable at about half the price.” Saad Mustafa said that ORI had introduced four types of hybrid seeds. “Two varieties are for short duration, one is for medium while the other is of normal duration. Short-span varieties mature in 100 days, which are for the cotton belt in Punjab, so that sunflower harvest is complete before cotton sowing.” He said that the locally-produced hybrids could give 35% to 38% extra yield per hectare. He informed WealthPK that farmers had also been provided with free seeds to experience the diffrence between the yield of imported and locally-produced hybrids. Saad Mustafa said that the ORI would ink agreements with Chinese organisations like Hebei Acedemy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Crop Science and Research Institute, Wuhan, and China Machinery Engineering Corporation for oilseed research and development.