The government says wheat seeds would be provided to Sindh and Balochistan provinces between the 1st and 15th of November for their onward distribution to the farmers affected by floods.

Minister for National Food Security Tariq Bashir Cheema informed the National Assembly that the best available quality seeds will be procured for the farmers. He said a tender for seeds procurement would be opened on October 26.

The minister said that Rs9 billion had been reappropriated from the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) and a World Bank program for the procurement of wheat and oil seeds. He said maximum efforts were being made for the rehabilitation of flood-affected people.

Alluding to the floodwater receding in Sindh, Tariq Bashir Cheema was confident that sufficient land would be available in the province for the cultivation of wheat. He said that oil seeds would be cultivated where the land could not be prepared for wheat cultivation.

The minister told the Loser House of the Parliament that there was no wheat crisis in the country as sufficient wheat had been imported. He said seeds would also be provided to the flood-affected farmers in sufficient quantities.

Meanwhile, responding to questions during question hour, the minister said 188 wheat varieties had been registered so far for general cultivation in the country. He said that a total of 28 wheat varieties had been registered for cultivation in Sindh.

He said that in 2021 the Provincial Seed Council Punjab had banned seven old productivity wheat varieties for cultivation in the province, and seed multiplication of the said varieties had also been banned by the National Seed Council. The Federal Certification and Registration Department has prohibited these varieties of seed according to the Seed Amendment Act 2015.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk