January 19, 2003	Sunday	Ziqa'ad 15, 1423

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THATTA, Jan 18: The National Sugar Crops Research Institute (NSCRI) has so far developed 37 new sugarcane varieties while research has been carried out to introduce 20 more varieties within the next few years.

The participants of an advisory committee meeting of the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC), were informed on Friday.

Briefing the participants, the director of the NSCRI, Dr Haji Khan Kerio, said that new varieties are likely to give better yield, with sugar recovery ratio of 13 per cent out of every 40 kilogramme in November.

He said that a new sugarcane variety named ‘Thatta-10’ had been developed, which had a record sugar recovery ratio of 20 per cent for every 40 kilogramme of the produce.

Lauding the NCSRI’s research, the president of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, Shunaid Qureshi, complained that banned varieties like ‘Disco’ were still being cultivated in many areas of Mirpurkhas and Tharparkar districts.

He said that these banned varieties were being sown over an area of 6,000 acres and the sugar recovery ratio did not exceed four per cent per 40kg of sugarcane.

The chairman of the Pakistan Society of Sugarcane Technologists, Shafait Zaidi, said that the society had decided to confer a gold medal on Dr Haji Khan Keerio in recognition of his outstanding services.

The chairman of the PARC, Dr Baduruddin Soomro, said that keeping in view the importance of agriculture industry, the government had enhanced the NSCRI’s budget.

Later, he inaugurated the new field office of the NSCRI.