September 12, 2007	Wednesday	Sha'aban 29, 1428

GUJRANWALA: Rice that used to be a major crop of the country is fast becoming an off-dining table dish due to its falling yield which has resulted in increasing its prices.

Agriculture experts have failed to produce new seed varieties to increase the yield per acre. A survey by Dawn in Gujranwala reveals that 80 per cent of the farmers grow ‘Basmati Super’ which is a late variety. Earlier, early variety like ‘Basmati 385’ contributed a lot to meet the needs of the country but this variety has become extinct.

Of the total 607,000 acres of rice cultivated area in the district, ‘Basmati Super’ is cultivated on 503,000 acres while other course varieties, including ‘Super Fine’, ‘Irri-6’, and the banned ‘Basmati 386’ are cultivated on 104,000 acres.

Shaukat Ali Wahla, assistant director of the Crops Reporting Department Gujranwala, told Dawn per acre yield of ‘Basmati Super’ had decreased from 832 kg to 753 kg; and the yield of coarse varieties had decreased from 1,034 kg to 946 kg.

He said ‘Basmati Kernal’, one of the two major rice crops, was not cultivated in Gujranwala; the cultivation of coarse variety ‘Kashmira’ and ‘Irri-6’ had been minimised to just 1,000 acres confined to Wazirabad; and banned ‘Basmati-386’ was cultivated in Gujranwala.

He said the prices of ‘Basmati Super’ had increased from Rs2,300 per 100 kg to Rs5,000 while the prices of coarse-variety ‘Super Fine’ had increased from Rs600 to Rs1,000 per 40 kg due to decreasing yield.

Muhammad Yousaf, technical irrigation officer of the Agriculture Department (extension), said new rice seeds must be introduced every 10 years because a seed variety became vulnerable to diseases and its yield started decreasing gradually. He said the Rice Research Institute only introduced ‘Basmati 2,000’ in the year 2000 which failed due to its low per acre yield.

He said the institute introduced coarse varieties which were used only for making starch.

He said ‘Basmati 385’ was not being cultivating in Gujranwala as it was susceptible to footnote and bacterial leaf blight diseases. The variety remained the most cultivated for 20 years due to its early reap period and good yield. The institute failed to introduce any extension of ‘Basmati 385’ immune to diseases.

Mushtaq Ahmed, director of the Rice Research Institute at Kala Shah Kaku, says decrease in yield of ‘Basmati Super’ is temporary due to weather, shortage of water and land condition factors. He said the institute had introduced a new coarse variety ‘KFK 133’ while new seeds would be introduced in two years.

He said ‘Basmati Super’ was a substitute for ‘Basmati 385’ which had played a major role in increasing Pakistan’s rice exports. He said his institute had introduced ‘Basmati 2000’ but it failed due to several reasons.

Muhammad Taimur, secretary general of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan, said the elimination of ‘Basmati 385’ had affected the export targets.

He said a 100 per cent increase in the rice price had nothing to do with decreasing per acre yield.

“The rice price has been stagnant for the last five years and now an increase in the price is natural which may go up again due to decreasing production,” he added.