The first-ever production of high yielding varieties of kidney beans at commercial level is expected to be launched soon in Pakistan.
On Friday, PARC released a report according to which commercial production of kidney beans is going to be commenced soon. The achievement is part of the promotion of common bean cultivation in the country under the five-year project for the promotion of research for productivity enhancement in pulses launched in 2019. The project has been funded by the Public Sector Development Programme with an amount of Rs 1.437 billion.
The report further says that shuttle multiplication has also been proposed for the promotion of kidney beans in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the spring season and upper regions in the kharif season.
Read more: Pakistan achieves self-sufficiency in production of mung beans
Moreover, Pakistan has become self-sufficient in moong bean as its production was recorded at 267,000 tonnes against the national requirement of 180,000 tonnes, says scientists engaged in the pulse project. They say that the major aim of the project is to achieve self-sufficiency in pulses production by increasing the yield of major pulse crops, including chickpea, lentil, moong, mash and kidney beans, by 30%.
Until now, at least 3,792 lines have been tested throughout the country in 25 different locations through national uniform yield trials to evaluate and select promising lines for varieties development.
Country has been facing acute shortage of quality of seed and pulses, therefore there was the need for more production and so production has been carried out on about 1,107 acres through which 6,553 tonnes of seed has been produced and distributed among the farmers.
As per the officials of the PARC, the quality seed’s availability of improved cultivars is the prime contributing factor towards achieving self-sufficiency in pulses. For this, varietal trials have been conducted in different agro-climatic zones of the country and the seed of identified best varieties was distributed among the farmers.
