News Report
BEIJING: Prof Zhao Changping, Chief Scientist of Hybrid Wheat Research Institute, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, said that a group of Chinese wheat experts was working diligently and closely with Pakistani scientists on hybrid wheat cooperation to boost wheat production in Pakistan.
Hybrid wheat is considered to be the first choice to solve the food crisis in the international agricultural science community, he remarked in an exclusive interview with China Economic Net (CEN) on Friday.
Prof Zhao Changping said that when it comes to China-Pakistan hybrid wheat cooperation, the selection and breeding of hybrid wheat varieties favorable for the local environment requires the cooperation of both parties. Therefore, he explained that we had established test stations in Peshawar, Lahore and Yuanmou in Yunnan Province, which is very similar to Pakistan’s local climate.
It is learned that the Chinese team’s hybrid wheat demonstration fields in Pakistan have been established at about 3,000-5,000 hectares. “From Peshawar and Islamabad in the north, Lahore in the center to Karachi in the south, our hybrid wheat has performed tremendously in all the major producing regions”, emphasized Zhao.
He also said, what’s more gratifying is that through the cooperation of scientists from both the countries, we discovered that by using the Pakistani wheat varieties as a distant parent to cross with Chinese wheat, the varieties produced are more emminent. Besides, he said that the hybridization of spring wheat in the southern and winter wheat in the northern wheat regions could also produce dominant hybrids.
High-level Hybrid Wheat Collaboration to Increase Production
“The emergence of new varieties has given us momentum as we resolve the two key problems, yield and disease resistance,” added Prof Zhang Shengquan, Deputy Director of the Hybrid Wheat Research Institute of BAAFS. “In 2019, after cooperation for nearly a decade, the selected hybrid wheat combinations, such as the new variety BH1683, have increased by over 20 percent in Pakistan for three consecutive years and can be widely used in the wheat regions in central and northern parts of Pakistan, including Peshawar and Lahore.
In addition, in the joint experiment between the two countries, even if the sowing amount was reduced by 80-90 percent, BH1683 still has the potential to increase yield by about 20 percent. After the introduction of the dominant genes of Chinese wheat, its disease resistance is also more advantageous than that of local varieties”.
Several Pakistani scientists who have been in contact with me for a long time, such as Dr. Muhammad Arif, Department of Agronomy UAP, have mentioned that wheat production in Pakistan has encountered a number of complex challenges.
For instance, last year’s rare high temperature once again tested Pakistan’s traditional wheat varieties, which has also deepened the understanding of China and Pakistan on the cultivation and application of wheat hybrids to ensure food security. Now, our pace of cooperation is accelerating and is moving towards the direction of joint research to global food security,” Prof Zhang said
Professor Zhao noted that this year marks not only the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, but also marks the 10th anniversary of China’s hybrid wheat going global. “China-Pakistan hybrid wheat cooperation is a model of high-tech agriculture going international and a symbol of China-Pakistan friendship.
Our incontrovertible mission as agricultural practitioners is to promote hybrid wheat to benefit the masses of Pakistan and the world. I predict that by around 2030, not only Pakistan, not only South Asia, our hybrid wheat will enter the stage of large-scale application in all continents.”
