The Country Manager of International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) for Pakistan Dr Abdul Majid said that by adopting modern and latest technologies of farming; water, effort, and money can be saved. This he said in the meeting with Agriculture Service Providers (ASPs) of Jamshoro District at US-Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Water (USPCAS-W), Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET) Jamshoro.
By quoting an example of latest technology, Dr Majid said that the duplicate of Banana Tree Shredder has been made in Pakistan. Through this machine, he said, the residual of banana trees could be composed as organic fertiliser which is very beneficial for the soil health and can also be used by farmers in their crops.
He said that through ridge sowing of wheat, 30 to 35 percent of water can be saved, 10 to 20 percent of the yield can be increased, and also water logging can be avoided. On the contrary, he said, the most of the farming in Pakistan is on the broadcasting pattern which causes the wastage of water, water logging and consequently the yield decreases. Dr Majid while sharing his observations of his recent visit to Sakrand and other areas of Shaheed Benazirabad and Hyderabad districts, he said that trend of farming two crops like sugarcane and wheat simultaneously in Sindh are appreciating in order to get maximum benefit for having two crops on the limited resources and one time use of water for the both crops.
He appreciated the role of MUET Water Centre for sensitising and helping the farmers of the region for adopting the modern irrigation systems like drip, sprinkler and others systems under the ICARDA project funded by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and US Agency for International Development (USAID).
In the meeting with ASPs, ICARDA Social Scientist Memoona Khan said that through the collective efforts, they can play the vital role for water saving in their respective areas with all the implementation partners of ICARDA Project on the efficient use of water in dry areas of Pakistan. On the occasion, Professor Dr Abdul Latif Qureshi briefed the ICARDA delegation about the recent project interventions.
The delegation also visited the demonstration site of drip system installed by the students of the Centre under the supervision of Dr Qureshi. "Due to the shortage of water, the situation in Manjhand area of Jamshoro district is worse than Thar," said Raza Muhammad, one of the participants in meeting while sharing his experiences.
Wazir Ali Burfat, one of the ASPs sharing his experiences said that drip irrigation system is one of the best and successful irrigation modern system for vegetables especially for tomatoes and ladyfinger. Engr Miskeen Ali Bhagat, research assistant of the ICARDA project said fruit trees and vegetables can be cultivated in the dry areas through drip irrigation system.
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