17 October 2004	Sunday	02 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Oct 16: The Sindh Seed Council on Saturday approved two new high-yielding varieties of cotton under the names of CRIS-134 and CRIS-467.

These high-yielding varieties have been developed by the Central Cotton Research Institute of Pakistan Central Cotton Committee, Sakrand.

The SSC meeting was chaired by Sindh Agriculture Minister Arif Mustafa Jatoi.

These varieties had successfully passed through the breeding and evaluation processes and reportedly possess the high-yielding potential along with other desirable fibre characteristics. These varieties are made available to the cotton growers in Sindh after a long time. In the absence of local varieties, the growers were relying on the old cotton variety NIAB-78. The cultivation of NIAB-78 has been abandoned in Punjab.

PCCC Vice-President Dr Ibad Badar Siddiqui has underlined the need for expeditious arrangements for multiplication and distribution of various crop seeds, including the newly developed varieties so that the growers are benefited from new research and the efforts of researchers and scientists should not go in vain.

The committee decided to convene an exclusive meeting on this issue. It was decided that the committee would meet frequently to discuss issues relating to development of new varieties and other efforts to boost yield.-APP