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Tissue culture technology for
Agricultural Improvement in Pakistan
LAHORE–New tissue culture technology will revolutionize the
agriculture sector of the country as by using cheap, virus
free and healthy seed, the production of sugarcane is expected
to increase to 1800 mund per acre from the present 450 mund
per acre.
"We can meet our local requirements of sugar within couple of
years, said Agriculture Scientist and Chief Executive, Agri
Biotech Dr Fayyaz Ahmad Siddiqui while briefing the newsmen
here at his lab on Sunday. He said that effective use of plant
cloning, tissue culture and biotechnology's enabled the agri
scientist to indigenously produce cheap, virus, fungal
diseases free seed of sugarcane, potato, banana, guava and
strawberry in abundance.
"With the help of this technology, we can produce seed in any
season and by cloning the formula, millions of plants can be
produced in labs," he said adding that after keeping these
plants in green-houses for few weeks, the small plants finally
transplanted in the fields.
 Dr Fayyaz Siddiqui said that his team prepared the sugarcane
seed after four years of
research. He said that with the help of cloning technology the
seed of sugarcane would be introduced across the country
within 2-3 years against the previous required duration of
12-15 years. "The new sugarcane seed would be available to all
the farmers of the country by the year 2003 from the
distribution network of Manoo group," he said.
"Pakistan stands at fifth position with regards to area under
sugarcane cultivation, while contrary to this, per acre
production of sugarcane is almost lowest in the world. The new
technology will increase the existing production of sugarcane
many folds besides significant saving in the usage of
fertilizers and pesticides," he informed. He said that sugar
contents would also be increased in the sugarcane.
With the collaboration of Ministry of Science and Technology,
he said, we also processed tissue culture potato seed which
showed encouraging results. He expressed the hope that this
seed would end our dependence on foreign seed producing firms.
 He said that as his company was also focusing on export based
agri products, a
project to process ornamental plants was also underway. "We
are going to sign an agreement with a US firm for exporting 2
million ornamental plants," he informed. Dr Fayyaz said that
his company also launched a project to dry vegetables and
fruits in order to export it.
"Mango, apple, tomato, onion,
chili and garlic are being dried for exporting to other
countries.
He was of the opinion that Pakistan could earn huge foreign
exchange by processing fruits and vegetables. "We also
overcome the marketing crisis of surplus vegetables and fruits
while processing them," he opined.
Later, Dr Shagufta Naz apprised the media men about the latest
research on cloning and tissue culture technologies.
July 29
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