Pakistan’s Evyol Group have demonstrated advanced harvester attachments aimed at controlling shattering losses in canola crop in Bhakkar district of Punjab.
Evyol Group provides high-quality canola seeds developed by Wuhan Qingfa Hesheng Seed Co. to Pakistani farmers under a joint venture with the Chinese company.
‘Qingfa’s HC-021C canola has 0.7% Erucid Acid and 15 mm/gm Glucosinolate, much lower than the global standard of 2% and 30 mm/gm, respectively. Therefore, the Chinese canola variety is dubbed as ‘00’ for having the least hazardous contents, Zafar Iqbal, Head Certus Seeds, a division of Evyol, said during a presentation to farmers and journalists.
Zafar said that they observed shattering losses to the tune of 200-400 kilograms per acre. ‘We informed our Chinese JV partner, which sent these advanced attachments to control the losses’, Zafar said. The optimum yield of HC-021C is around 1500-1600 kgs per acre, he said.
In the next phase, the Chinese partner will send small pressing machines to enable the farmers to extract canola oil at household level, he added.
Zafar said that Pakistan imports 4.4 million tons of edible oil worth around $3.8 billion. The Chinese canola variety can bridge this gap and save precious foreign reserves for Pakistan besides increasing profitability for local farmers, he said.
‘We started selling the HC-021C seeds in 2019. So far, it is being cultivated on over 100,000 acres of land. Our target is 12.5 million acres to make Pakistan self sufficient in edible oil’, Zafar said.
Ghazanfar Ali, Director Marketing of the group said that, Pakistan and China have great potential of agricultural collaboration under the framework of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) . The 2nd phase of CPEC is aimed at providing the latest technological advancement of Chinese agricultural industry to Pakistan.
He also said that China’s agricultural contributions for its society are remarkable that have been recognized globally. China have lifted more than 800 million of its peoole out of poverty and the credit goes to the transformation of Chinese agricultural industry.
He told that Pakistan has a a great opportunity to enjoy the bemefits of Chinese agricultural technological advancements that may also be a greaf revolution for our local agri industry.
Muhammad Zamir Assadi
A senior journalist and research fellow in Islamabad