"Developed indigenously by the Pakistani scientists led by Dr Muhammad Bashir Cheema, these varieties will be available for commercial sowing in two years time as currently it is being further refined," said CEO Emkay Seeds, Sajjad Sulaiman Malik while talking to a group of journalists here on Wednesday. It has been estimated that if only 20 percent of Basmati area is sown with new hybrids of fine rice varieties in Punjab, the main growing area, Rs 60 to 70 billion worth of additional economic activity can be generated. On export front, Pakistan can fetch another $500 million with this bonus production of Basmati rice.
"This is the beginning of Pakistan's rice revolution which will start bearing fruit for the farmers, the rice millers and exporters in the near future," Malik added.
He also claimed that the company was the first in Pakistan to have a locally developed medium grain rice hybrid (Emkay H-401) approved from the Varietal Evaluation Committee (VEC) of the Pakistan Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
He said that it has been refined further for Sind and expected to be launched in the next year.
He said that research is being conducted at their research farms situated in Farooqabad, which is the heartland of Basmati rice production in the world. Throwing light on their achievement till date, he said that 20 medium grain CMS lines have been developed, four Basmati Lines including the famous "Super Basmati" having excellent eating and cooking quality have been converted into CMS lines, about 400 Restorer and Maintainer Lines have been developed and one Bacterial Leaf Blight (BLB) resistant rice hybrids have also been produced at the same farm.
Sajjad also said that their developed medium grain hybrid rice had reached a stage where these could compete with the Chinese products. He said their company had a long history of research and collaborated with the Chinese and IRRI-Philippines.
To a question, he said that locally produced hybrid rice seed would cost less than the imported hybrid rice thus saving millions of dollars being spent on import. He also disclosed that the rice germplasm was obtained from China and IRRI in addition to local germplasm to develop three line systems i.e., Cytoplasmic Male Sterile (CMS), Maintainer and Restorer Lines.