News

More productive, resilient varieties for thousands of farmers

Last year’s maize-growing season in Pakistan yielded a record-breaking six-million tons, decreasing the country’s dependence on imported maize seed and boosting local sales and exports of maize-based products.

Maize is Pakistan’s third important cereal following wheat and rice. However, Pakistan still imports more than 80 percent of the hybrid seeds, costing the country over $50 million annually and making retail price of hybrid seeds expensive.

Harinder Sidhu, Australian High Commissioner to India, visits Borlaug Institute for South Asia and climate-smart village.

A delegation of representatives from the USAID’s Mission for Economic Growth and Agriculture in Pakistan visited the National Agricultural Research Center to see the interventions by the Agricultural Innovation Program led by CIMMYT.

In the face of endemic malnutrition, researchers in Pakistan are turning to biofortified maize to combat vitamin A, zinc and protein deficiencies.

Agronomy experts from across Pakistan gathered earlier this month to discuss progress in Pakistan since 2014 under the USAID funded Agricultural Innovation Program.

A recently held traveling seminar brought together private and public seed partners in Pakistan to enhance maize production and productivity in order to meet current demand and plan for future needs.

Farmers in Pakistan are eagerly adopting a nutrient-enhanced wheat variety offering improved food security, higher incomes, health benefits and a delicious taste.

Farmers and research partners are praising innovative, locally manufactured farm implements that support conservation agriculture in rice-wheat farming rotation in Pakistan.

AbduRahman Beshir and his team are developing climate-resilient, biofortified and biotic stress-tolerant maize to enhance the maize seed sector.

WhileGM foods continue to be a topic of debate in much of the developed world, few studies have focused on consumers’ acceptance of GM food in developing countries.