Pakistan introduces two new high-yielding banana varieties

In addition to improved yields, these bananas have excellent keeping quality for export. Pakinstan has achieved a breakthrough in banana breeding as the country's leading agricultural research institution has developed two varieties of fruit for cultivation in Sindh. “The new varieties - NIGAB-1 and NIGAB-2 - will increase banana production in the country, which will further help meet domestic needs as well as export targets,” said Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) chairman Dr. Muhammad Azim Khan. He expressed his gratitude to the scientists involved in the development of the NIGAB varieties. The new banana varieties have been developed at the National Institute for Genomic and Advanced Biotechnology (NIGAB) at the National Center for Agricultural Research, where to date 300,000 healthy plants have been grown using tissue culture. These high-yielding varieties will have a longer shelf life, which is the main requirement for export, and are approved by the Sindh Seed ...