MULTAN: Agricultural scientists are working on ‘candidate varieties’ of cotton which would be available to farmers in near future after approval of the government.

Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture (MNSUA) VC Prof Dr Muhammad Ashraf told APP that varsity had decided to provide cotton and wheat seeds to growers from next season with 100 purity.

“We intend to establish a seed production centre at Makhdoom Rashid in future,” the VC said.

Dr Ashraf regretted that some businessmen provided spurious seeds to farmers with an objective to mint money. “As far as my knowledge goes, there are 300 companies dealing in agri business at Rahim Yar Khan only. A company provides fake seeds to farmers in one season and in next season, it vanishes from the business scene.”

The VC suggested that there should a sound policy to deal with these adulterers and added that it was the only way to safeguard the investment of growers.

Published in Dawn, November 27th , 2014