Pakistan: Hybrid Seed Companies Accused Of Duping Farmers

Growers in Pakistan's Sindh province are facing the heat as thousands of acres of paddy crop raised from hybrid rice seed has turned out to be unproductive.

According to the farmers, some Karachi based private seed companies had supplied the hybrid paddy seeds which were imported from China to growers in these areas, at a cost of Rs250 to Rs300 per kilogram assuring production of around 150 maunds per acre after sowing 2 kilogram of hybrid paddy seeds.

Rice traders in Paksiatn have expressed concern that due to flood, fake hybrid seed and LFV attack the rice production in Sindh might fall by half a million MT to 1.5 million MT against usual out put of around 2 million MT.