The country is importing 85 percent of total maize seeds which is costing billions of rupees to national economy.

Experts stated this at the International Colloquium titled challenges and opportunities of maize production organized by Maize Research Group, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture Faisalabad on Wednesday. Chairing the inaugural session, Provincial Bait-ul-Maal and Social Welfare Minister Muhammad Ajmal Cheema urged the agricultural scientists to develop weather resilient seed and to work on narrowing down seed import. He added that agriculture sector had been facing numerous problems including water scarcity, climate changes and low productivity as compared to developed nations. He viewed that the government had been taking tremendous steps whereas fruitful efforts were underway not only for the uplift of the agricultural sector but also to alleviate poverty. He added that steps were afoot to address the issues of the farming community. UAF Acting Vice Chancellor Dr Ashfaq Ahmad Maan said that more than 90 percent of total maize production comes from two provinces including Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He added in the maize fields, most of the farmers were women. Therefore, their contribution in latest agriculture practice training must be ensured. He said that nutritional quality improvement was also imperative to address the malnutrition issue that was hitting 50 percent population. He said changing eating habits, life style and away from traditional way of living was magnifying the issue of malnutrition. He added that with the passage of time, it is witnessed in our country that people heights were going down due to malnutrition. Dean Faculty of Agriculture Dr Asif Tanveer said that in the country, during the year 2017-18, maize crop was cultivated on an area of 1.229 million hectares and witnessed the decline of 8.8 percent over last year cultivated area of 1.348 million hectares. He said that biotic stresses including insect pests, and diseases were also causing reduction in maize. He stressed upon the Maize group experts to come up with the viable and tangible results for the improvement and increase per acre production. Muhammad Asim form CropLife Pakistan that during the last twenty years had gone up manifold owing to introduction of hybrid seed, and agronomic research. He stressed upon the need to grow maize with the adoption of latest agricultural technologies and enabling environment for research and development. He said that during the last two decade, the cultivated area for the maize had doubled in the province. Qiang Zhao from Xingjian Agriculture University China said that corn is the third largest crop in Xinjian after wheat and cotton. He said that whole mechanization of the corn is the only way for modern corn production in china. He said that maize seed processing has achieved large area simmering, threshing, grading, coating and packaging. The quality of the seed is high and vigor is high. Plant Breeding Genetic Chairman Dr Hafeez Sadaqat, Assistant Professor Dr Malik Muhammad Aslam and other notables also spoke on the occasion.