NATIONAL COORDINATED OIL SEED PROGRAMME
NARC, Islamabad
INTRODUCTION
The oil crops of Pakistan are many. Most of these are cultivated on small acreage. Rapeseed-mustard, sesame, linseed and castor are grown in this region since immemorial and are called traditional crops. Sunflower, soybean, safflower are called non-traditional. In addition, three oil bearing trees also maintain their presence in some agro-ecological niches. Coconut and oil palm are the latest entries to this group.
One
of the challenges be setting the economy of Pakistan is the edible oil deficit.
Its indigenous production is below the consumption levels with a very wide gap
between production and consumption. This gap is bridged through import of edible
oil worth more than Rs. 45.0 billion annually. Presently the oilseed production
only met about 25% of the requirements. After cotton which contributes more than
60% of the domestic production, rapeseed-mustard is the second important crop
contributing more than 17% to domestic oilseed production.
Domestic edible oil production from all sources has grown at the rate of 2.56% annually over the last about three decades, whereas consumption is increasing at an annual rate of 7.7%. The indigenous edible oil production could not match the growing demand of population. The graph of population and urbanization could not match the rising, outstretching the divergence between demand and domestic production. The rapid expansion of domestic oilseed production has been the major concern for decision makers because of mounting import bill.
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
Rapeseed - Mustard (Brassica Species)
Safflower (Catharanthus Tinctorious)
EDIBLE
OIL AVAILABILITY IN THE COUNTRY
Domestic production of edible oil has been fluctuating for the last couple of
decades. These fluctuations are due to indigenous marketing, low support price
and high cost of production which is making these crops non-profitable to the
farmers. Only sunflower has shown some positive results in area and production
compared to other oil crops.
In domestic production, major share comes from cottonseed contributing 75% of local production. Rapeseed, mustard and canola contribute 15%, whereas sunflower, soybean, safflower and corn contribute the remaining 10%. Domestic production of edible oil during 1991-92 was 0.486 million tons which substantially increased to 0.646 million tons during 2000-2001 due to canola and sunflower plantation on a considerable area. Sunflower and canola are the two potential crops, which can fulfill some requirements of edible oil in the country. A comparison of the domestic production, import of edible oil and cost of import is given below:
Domestic production, import and value of edible oil
|
Year |
Domestic
Production (000
tons) |
Import
(000
tons) |
Value
of import (Rs.
Billion) |
|
1999-00 |
607 |
1091 |
21.4 |
|
2000-01 |
642 |
1149 |
19.04 |
|
2001-02 |
646 |
1197 |
24.03 |
|
2002-03 |
665 |
1281 |
39.29 |
|
2003-04 |
678 |
1361 |
37.91 |
|
2004-05 |
842 |
1605 |
44.98 |
Source: Agricultural Statistics of Pakistan
CONTROL OF WEEDS IN DIFFERENT OILSEED CROPS
Use
of Different Pre and Post-emergence Herbicides
The use of herbicides, both in pre. and post-emergence application manner, has
been gaining popularity due to a number of reasons in the recent years. With
time and changing cropping patterns, different brands of herbicides are
introduced and used for the control of weeds in different crop commodities. In
our present investigation, experiments are being conducted to control weeds by
using different new brands of herbicides and optimizing its concentrations. The
following s investigations were done in oilseed crops.
In sunflower mostly grasses and broad leave weeds were controlled by the application of pre-emergence herbicide Dual Gold @ 0.8 litre /acre. 28% more sunflower grain yield was obtained compared to weedy check.
Similarly Acetachlor, a pre-emergence herbicide @ 0.7litre/acre in soybean controlled most of the weeds. It gave 53% more yield than weedy check.
Acetachlor applied as pre-emergence @ 0.7 litre/acre in sesame controlled most of the weeds and gave 39% more yield as compare with weedy check.
Similarly the same herbicide Acetachlor applied as pre-emergence @ 0.7 litre/acre in Groundnut obtained 18.4% more yield than control (weedy check).
At NARC field area, post emergence herbicide Glyphosate applied @ 1.9 litre/acr, one month before planting of Groundnut and Soybean crops, controlled all broad leave and grassy weeds.
OTHER EVENTS
Traveling Seminars
To assess the performance of different oilseed crops, the traveling seminars to the oilseed growing areas has become a regular feature of the program. For this purpose, traveling seminars are being arranged on different oilseed crops during its growing period. The objectives of seminars are:
To determine the recent trends of the crop in the potential growing areas.
To study production practices of growers and evaluate the potentials of the crop.
To know the farmers perception about the constraints for increasing area and average yield and get first hand information about the real problems of the crops by visiting the crop on farmer's fields and to document farmers views for the improvement.
To assess jointly research programs of Institutes and private seed industry and formulation of recommendations for the improvement in research and promotion of the crop.
To assess various problems of crop, viz., insects, diseases, weeds, soil, farm machinery and marketing of farmer's produce.
To evaluate the performance of the crops in National uniform Yield Trial planted at various locations.
To bring together scientists working on sunflower from four provinces, officials of Pakistan Oilseeds Development Board, Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department, private seed companies and solvent extraction on one platform to study the problems of crop production, promotion, availability of quality seed in the country marketing of the produce, oil extraction and by-product utilization.
Sunflower
Traveling Seminar (Phase-I) in Sindh
A sunflower traveling seminar (Phase-I) was conducted from 7th April, 2008 to
11th April, 2008 to visit the sunflower crop in areas of Sindh Province
including Badin, Matli, Tando Allahyar, Golarchi, Jamshoro, Dadu, Nawab Shah and
Sakrand. A group of about 20 scientists from NARC, FSC&RD, ARI Tandojam,
PODB and multinational seed companies including ICI Pvt. Ltd., Syngenta and
Pioneer participated in this seminar. The area under sunflower crop is
increasing and overall crop condition was encouraging. Small farmers are getting
seed yield of about 12-15 maunds/acre whereas the progressive farmers are taking
high yield ranging 22-25 maunds/acre.
Sunflower Traveling Seminar (Phase-II) in Punjab and
NWFP
A sunflower traveling seminar (Phase-II) is being scheduled from 12th May, 2008
to 17th May, 2008 to visit sunflower crop in the areas of the Punjab and NWFP
Provinces including DI Khan, Muzaffargarh, Multan, Bahawalpur, Sahiwal and
Faisalabad. Scientists and experts from federal and provincial research
institutes and multinational seed companies will participate in this activity.
The team will mainly focus on the performance of hybrids planted under NUYT and
also hybrids planted on farmers' field.
Oilseed
Annual Review and Planning Meeting 2008
A two days "Annual Review and Research Planning Meeting" of Oilseeds
Research Program was held at NARC Islamabad from March 26-27, 2008. More than 60
scientists and other stakeholders from Federal and Provincial Research
Institutes, PODB, FSC&RD, Agriculture Foundation of Pakistan, Seed Companies
Association of Pakistan (SCAP), Agricultural Universities and farmers,
participated in this meeting. The meeting had four technical sessions in
addition to inaugural and concluding sessions. A total of 18 presentations were
made and scientists of Oilseed Cooperative Units presented their research
achievements and future plans, besides other key lectures on topics related to
oilseed sub-sector.
The
meeting was inaugurated by Dr. Iftikhar Ahmed, Member Plant Sciences, PARC. In
his inaugural address the chief guest emphasized the need to improve the
productivity of oilseeds in the country. He also emphasized to make the National
Coordinated Research Program more successful in order to pave the way for self
sufficiency in oilseed sector. He further stressed for result full and
actionable recommendations. In his welcome address National Coordinator
Oilseeds, Dr. Akbar S. Mohmand gave a brief account of research
achievements/developments of Oilseeds Research Program, NARC. Dr. Akhlaq Hussain,
Director General, FSC&RD, Islamabad, talked about the regulatory status for
the import of seed of sunflower hybrids.
In his concluding remarks Dr. M. Saleem, Senior Director (Plant Sciences Division) PARC lauded the concerted efforts of oilseed scientists for improving the oilseed production in the country.
Resource Person:
Dr. Akbar Shah Mohmand, PSO |
