Fats and oils are important ingredients of human food. In Pakistan, more than a dozen crops are grown to extract vegetable oil from their seeds and these crops are termed as Oilseed Crops. Rapeseed-Mustard, Sesame, Groundnut, Linseed and Castor are traditional oilseed crops. Sunflower, Soybean and Safflower are regarded as non-traditional Oilseed Crops as these were introduced in Pakistan from other countries. This institute is also conducting research on Jojoba plant, a shrub introduced in Pakistan from United States of America and its cultivation is being promoted in arid zones specially deserts of Southern Punjab. The Oil extracted from linseed, castor and jojoba is mainly used for industrial/medicinal purposes while Rapeseed Mustard, Sunflower, Soybean, Safflower, Sesame and groundnut Oil is used for nutritional purposes.
The crop improvement work on oilseeds was started in 1926 with the establishment of an Oilseed Section in the Punjab Agri. College and Research Institute, Lyallpur. The research at that time was focused on conventional oilseed crops. The technological aspects of Oilseed crops were taken up in 1936 by establishing an oil technology laboratory in the oilseed section. The Research Work on groundnut was started at Oilseeds Research Substation, Rawalpindi in 1947 under Oilseeds Section. In 1975, Punjab Oilseeds Research system was strengthened by upgrading the Oilseeds Section to the status of Oilseeds Research Institute, Lyallpur and new crops like sunflower, soybean and safflower were added to the mandate of Oilseeds Research Institute. However in 1979, the control of Groundnut Research Sub-Station Rawalpindi was transferred from Oilseeds Research Institute, Faisalabad to the Barani Agriculture Research Institute, Chakwal after the up gradation as research station. During 1987, a new oilseed shrub called jojoba was introduced from USA and research on its acclimatization and improvement was started at Bahawalpur under the umbrella of the Oilseeds Research Institute, Faisalabad.
Mission & Objectives:
- The Institute has the following research objectives: -
- To develop oilseed varieties with better yield and resistance/tolerance to different insect pests and diseases.
- To develop the hybrid of sunflower and canola crops.
- To develop production technologies of oilseed crops for better yields and good quality oil.
- To produce Pre-basic and basic seed of oilseed crops.