Farmers being supplied agri inputs to achieve targets, says minister.

LAHORE -- Caretaker Minister of Industries, Trade and Energy S.M. Tanveer says Punjab is taking all possible steps to ensure the supply of quality agricultural inputs to the farmers to achieve the production targets this year.

He was presiding over the 56th session of the Punjab Seed Council on Friday.

In the meeting, 56 new varieties of agricultural commodities of public and private sector were approved, which included varieties of paddy, hybrid maize, oats, gram, groundnut, rye, sunflower, sesame, barseem, dates, wheat and cotton.

The minister gave approval for the general cultivation of 56 new varieties while seeking DNA fingerprint reports of seven different crop varieties within 15 days.

He issued directions for establishment of a sub-committee 'Green Revolution-II' to review the problems faced in various types of crops. He congratulated agricultural scientists for developing these varieties and urged them to further improve the research trials. He directed the officials to make variety registration and DNA fingerprinting mandatory for the approval of agricultural commodity types.

Mr Tanveer said the current government was paying special attention to the production of quality seeds to increase the agricultural production per acre with world-class seeds, which would also increase domestic exports.

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