KARACHI, Nov 18: Scientists of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) have evolved a new variety of wheat (Marvi- 2000) and a variety of cotton (Sohni) at the Nuclear Institute of Agriculture (NIA), Tandojam.

Marvi-2000 evolved through pyramiding different rust resistant genes in a high yielding genotype PK-1600.

The new wheat variety posses distinct characters like long spike with hairy glumes. It has the yield potential of 7t/ha. in the cotton belt of Sindh. It combines both high yield and resistance against the prevailing races of leaf and stem rust. It has 13.5 per cent protein content with high gluten.

Sohni, having high yielding maturity and ginned lint ratios, needs less number of irrigation and sprays of plant protection measures. It can fit in wide range of cropping pattern, particularly in the cotton-wheat-cotton and cotton-mungbean- cotton rotations.

These varieties have been approved by the Sindh Seed Council (SSC) for general cultivation in a meeting presided over by the provincial secretary for Agriculture Sindh.