KP Seed Council approves 41 new food crop varieties

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Seed Council has formally approved 41 new food crop varieties for cultivation including three new varieties of Nuclear Institute for Food and Agricultural (NIFA).

The approval was accorded at the 40th meeting of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Seed Council held at Cereal Crops Research Institute, Pirsabak in Nowshera.

Provincial Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Mohibullah Khan chaired and Secretary Agriculture & Livestock Dr Muhammad Israr, Director General Agriculture Research Dr Abdul Rauf, Director NIFA Dr Gul Sanat Shah and other agriculture scientists, members of technical committee and experts attended the meeting.

The NIFA Peshawar after concerted breeding efforts for years has developed two black-seeded mungbean and one rapeseed varieties namely NIFA Sikaram-21, NIFA Spinghar-21 and NIFA Sarsoon T-20.

The oilseed brassica variety has been released for cultivation in KP and Punjab while mungbean varieties have been developed specifically for Kurram areas.

The two varieties of mungbean are a cross between a local low yielding and disease susceptible black-seeded mungbean land-race being cultivated in Kurram and the adjoining areas of Afghanistan since unknown dates and later named as Kurram black mung and another local black mottled seeded mungbean genotype developed at NIAB, Faisalabad, through irradiation and later named as NIFA black.

After extensive selection processes of desired plant types and later testing in yield trials for many seasons, the two varieties were selected based on their better performance.

The two black seeded varieties are unique in nature because these are the first-ever black-seeded mungbean varieties in the world, as no commercially approved varieties of black-seeded mungbean exist elsewhere in the world.

Both varieties also have shiny black seed coat color, high yield potential (1700 Kg/ha) with 90 percent increase in yield over Kurram black mung.

Similarly, NIFA Sikaram-21 is short-statured and is best suited for areas in upper Kurram whereas NIFA Spinghar-21 is medium-statured and is suitable for areas in lower Kurram.

Both the varieties are resistant to Mungbean Yellow Mosaic Virus. Both the varieties can play a better role in enhancing the overall mungbean area in the KP and uplifting the financial status of mungbean growers of Kurram through harvesting higher grain yields.

The rapeseed variety NIFA Sarsoon T-20 developed through physical mutagenesis. The variety has high seed and oil yields potential that was manifested in series of seed yield trials during its developmental phase endowed with resistance to alternaria blight disease.