Bureau Report
Peshawar: “After 11 years of local experiments and demonstrations in Peshawar, Beijing hybrid wheat is ready to be popularized in Pakistan. We’re stepping in the marketization stage and looking for cooperative enterprises in Pakistan,” said Dr Zhang Shengquan, expert of Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences (BAAFS).
According to Zhang, after comparing with thousands of species of other wheat and selecting from ten thousand of genome of Beijing hybrid wheat, the final Beijing hybrid wheat we have bred can fully adapt to the climate and soil in Pakistan. Meanwhile, it also can greatly alleviate the food crisis in Pakistan and meet the nutritional needs of the Pakistani people. In order to achieve high yields in Pakistan, Beijing hybrid wheat has been fully accustomed to Pakistan’s arid and hot climate for the past 11 years of experimentation. Meanwhile, the wheat rust is a major factor in the reduction of wheat production in Pakistan. Beijing hybrid wheat can basically achieve immunity or high resistance to this crop disease. Zhang said, Pakistan suffers from a chronic wheat shortage because of high demand for high-quality wheat and low yields. Therefore, while ensuring excellent drought resistance, lodging resistance, disease and insect resistance, increasing yield is our research focus.
According to experimental data this year, compared with the best local varieties in Pakistan, planted on the same acreage, Beijing hybrid wheat harvested 120% of crop using only 10% of seeds. The composition testing shows that the nutrition and taste of Beijing hybrid wheat can meet the needs of Pakistani people, and the texture of flour is very suitable for Nam and Chabati.
“After 11 years of research and experiments, we are confident that the current Beijing hybrid wheat has fully met the ripe conditions for large-scale promotion in Pakistan. We’ll provide Beijing hybrid wheat seed to Pakistan so that our iron brother can overcome the food crisis. We are willing to provide as much seeds as they need,” said Zhang Sheng Quan.
