First monsoon rains spell boosts Punjab agriculture sector

The first spell of monsoon rains has greatly boosted water starved Punjab agriculture sector specially the rice plantation, which was not picking up despite being the prime time, Director General Punjab Agriculture Extension Services, Dr Anjum Ali told Business Recorder here on Tuesday.
Dr Ali said that ideally the rice nursery plantation is completed by 20th July. However, since there was shortage of water for preparation of fields, rice nursery has so far been planted only on 1.6 million acres out of the target of 4.492 million acres.
He said the current heavy rains in the main rice growing districts of the province and greater water flows in the rivers would help achieve rice production targets of 2010-2011. He said rice is an important foreign exchange earning crop and the agriculture extension services department is pooling all its resources to help the farmers to complete the rice plantation as early as possible.
Dr Ali said that sugarcane crop sown over 1.8 million acres in the province needed deep watering at middle level stage of its growth. Instead of the ground watering these rains energised the sugarcane plants by sprinkle irrigation. He said the rains have also greatly benefited the most important cotton crop sown over 5.7 million acres in the province, as rains have minimised the white fly virus attack and strengthened the plant for flowering.
President Agri-forum Pakistan Ibrahim Moghal said the rains have benefited nine crops. The farmers in the barani areas would now be in a position to sow Mash, Moong, vegetables and fodder in large areas, specially in the Rawalpindi division. Meanwhile Meteorological department has predicted rain with dust- thundershower at scattered places of Punjab including Islamabad, Upper Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, G.B and Kashmir, whereas light rain/drizzle may occur at isolated places along Sindh coastal areas.
Met office recorded rainfall (mm) during past 24 hours as under: Faisalabad=92, Okara=77, Sahiwal=66, Lahore (Baghbanpura=85, Upper Mall=64, Airport=62, City=49, Shahi Qilla=45, Shahdara=42), Marala (D/ S)= 40, Ravi Syphon & Marala=36(each), Shorkot & Sibbi=35(each), G. S. Wala=31, Toba Tek Singh=30, Chakri=27, Shakargarh=26, Jhang=25, Attock=24, Jassar=22, Kund=21, Kallar=20, Sialkot (Airport=18, Cantt= 12), Bhakkar=18, Bahawalnagar=17, D. G. Khan & Multan=15(each), Mangla=14, D. I. Khan=07, Zafarwal=05, Kotnaina & Sara-i-Alamgir=04, Shadiwal & Garhidopatta= 03(each), Palandri, Domel & Mandibahauddin=02(each), Bahawalpur (Airport=01, City=Trace), Sehrkakota, Dara-e-Tang, Dir, Palku, Alexandra Bridge, Shinkiari, Kotli, Barkhan & Muzaffarabad=01(each), Karachi(Faisal), Mianwali, Balakot, Hunza, Jacobabad & Skardu = Trace (each).