The University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and Seed Association of Pakistan pledge to hold Pakistan Seed Congress at UAF shortly to deliberate on Modern Seed Act, seed regulations, seed policy, seed storage and handling issues among the researchers and stakeholders..

The University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and Seed Association of Pakistan pledge to hold Pakistan Seed Congress at UAF shortly to deliberate on Modern Seed Act, seed regulations, seed policy, seed storage and handling issues among the researchers and stakeholders. This was decided in a meeting between UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan and Dr. Shakeel Ahmad Khan President, Seed Association of Pakistan and Director General, Federal Seed Certification and Registration here in VC chamber on Saturday morning. Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that UAF was vigorously working on offering an interdisciplinary seed program aiming at bringing the researchers of agronomy, crop physiology, horticulture, breeding, and plant protection under one roof as people are working in silos. He vowed to hone the young and capable seed professionals to cope with the emerging challenges of the sector. Dr Iqrar said after rigorous advocacy campaign of the university, balance fertilizer program of the University has now become the priority of the Punjab Government that would save billion of rupees every year. He said, to ensure the food security, the University was making all out efforts to urge the government for hand-holding of the farmers by giving them subsidies on fertilizers or other inputs rather to keep cost of production low than to the millers. He said cost of production in Pakistan is now higher than the international parity which hampers the whole supply chain of the sector. He said owing to various factors and farmers' exploitation in selling their crops at negligible price, this years, the farmers had to bear a loss of about 30 Billion rupees that could be shifted to the rural areas by bringing pro-farmers policies. Dr Shakeel Ahmad Khan, Federal Seed Certification and Registration Director General said after approval of the parliament and president, seed act has now become a law of the land and there is a dire need to aware the masses about the act and its implementation. He said, after enactment of seed act, we need to explore investment ventures in the seed industry and getting the professionals trained in seed policy, regulations, storage and handling issues during the seed congress at UAF. Earlier, addressing the meeting of Pakistan Seed Academy here at ORIC, Dr Asif Ali Director Office of the Research, Innovation and Commercialization, said seed was the basic and very first input of the crop that need to be examined before sowing it in the field. He hoped that the seed congress would provide a vibrant plate forum to the researchers, and other stakeholders to bring forth the cutting-edge ideas to prosper the seed industry in the country. Mr Asim from Monsanto Pakistan and other concerned were also present in the meeting