The Chairman, PARC Dr Zafar Altaf has been trying to handle the agricultural research and development issues by starting work on various new initiatives.
Some of the salient initiatives include: Bio-redemption of used water; Organic Agriculture; Small Holder Bio-Processing Machinery; Integrated Farming; Bio-prospecting; Home Pharmacy and Medicinal Herb Culture; Urban Agriculture (Kitchen and Container gardening); High Density Low Stature Fruit Production; Hedge Row Fruit & Vegetable Production; Tunnel Vegetable Culture; Bio-saline Agriculture; Bio-Diesel; Alternative Energy; Bamboo Production; Dairy Product Diversification; Backyard Indigenous Poultry Production; Endangered Wildlife Breeding; Ornamental Fish Culture; Under-utilised Crops Initiative; Dry Rice Culture; Coloured GM Cotton Production; Hybrid Rice, Wheat, Cotton, and Oilseeds Culture; Wheat Wide Crosses; Microbial Genetic Resources; Gender Mainstreaming Initiative; and Agricultural Polytechnic Institute.
Work on majority of the above mentioned initiatives has already started and we hope that results shall start coming very soon resulting in improve productivity, increase the income of the farmer and improved food security of the Pakistani Masses.
Aerobic Rice Production Technology Rational: In Pakistan, rice is, traditionally, grown as manual transplanting of 30-days old rice seedlings in the well flooded and puddled fields.
Rice nursery is raised separately on fine-prepared and manured soil. The nursery seedlings at the age of 30-35ndays are, then, uprooted manually and shifted to the flooded and puddle field. Puddling (land preparation in flooding) destroys soil structure and after paddy crop harvest, the soil condition is not conducive for fine land preparation and good stand establishment of following Rabi crops.
Farmers keep standing of water continuously up to the maturity of rice crop. Moreover, manual and random transplanting of rice seedlings does ensure optimum plant population. About 50,000-60,000 plants are found in the manual transplanted crop against the recommended plant population of 80,000 to 100,000 per acre.
In this respect, the conventional method of rice cultivation is labour and water-intensive and involves high cost of energy, with the result of low paddy yield. Hence, the present rice cultivation system is not very productive, resource-efficient and sustainable, and poses serious threats to the sustainability of rice-based cropping system.
Alternatively, aerobic rice (a special rice that is grown like wheat or maize crops) addresses to such issues and saves water, labour, time and improves stand establishment of the following crops. Rice seeds are drilled or broadcast in fine seedbed and then irrigation's are applied whenever it is required.
Aerobic rice does not need growing of nursery, its transportation and transplanting, and puddling operation. This method of rice establishment leads to increased water productivity, availability of nutrients, and helps improve stand establishment of following wheat crop. Aerobic rice is quite feasible for the non-traditional rice belt where more than 0.9 mha area is brought under rice, dominantly with non-basmati rice varieties.
However, alternate wetting and drying (AWD) technique (after 35 days of flooding) for transplanted rice is more appropriate for the basmati rice varieties in the traditional rice belt. Both technologies for water saving rice production system have been tested and verified at the KSK farm over the last 3-4 years.
Now, these technologies are now being upscaled in the rice growing areas of Punjab and Sindh, under the project "Sustaining the Productivity of Rice-Based Cropping System through New Interventions in Punjab and Sindh Provinces". and proven innovative technologies related to water saving, crop establishment and crop diversification, are being disseminated in the project area
Methodology: In Pakistan, three sites in Punjab and 2 sites in Sindh are identified where the aerobic or AWD technologies are being disseminated. This area falls in the districts of Guranwala, Okara, Kasur, Jhang, Thatta, and Larkana. The total impact area is estimated to be 200,000 ha.
At each site, a team of rice experts is responsible to contact the farmers and accelerate the promotion of water-saving rice production technology in the area. At initial, the team surveyed the area and collected baseline information.
Then, they talked with the farmers through individual and group meetings. They also met with the District Agriculture Extension officials who have deep roots among the farming community. At each site, the team identified co-operative farmers and selected 200 fields where the aerobic rice (dry direct rice) and alternate wetting and drying technique for transplanted rice are being disseminated.
At each location, water-saving rice fields are compared with farmers' conventional rice cultivation method. These demo plots provide an effective media to educate and convince the farmers toward new technologies. Farmers' field days and farmers' participatory trials would also be conducted to motivate the farmers to adopt new water saving rice production technologies.
Progress Made:
The results on aerobic rice with non-basmati rice varieties indicate that more than grain yield of 6.58 t/ha was obtained as against of 6.82 t/ha with flooded and transplanted rice. Water saving, however, was about 23 % in aerobic rice over the transplanted rice. Likewise, in basmati rice, the alternate wetting and drying method saved about 38 % water or 7 irrigation's over the continuous flooded rice
Net monitory advantage in AWD basmati rice was nearly Rs 9,000/ha. During the current rice season, an educational and motivational compaign in the project area was launched wherein more than 100 demo plots on aerobic rice were established (Table 3), and over 60 group meetings were also conducted to familiarise the farmers with new interventions. Similarly, more than 100 demo plots on AWD method are in progress during the current month.
B. Pak - China Collaboration
Development of Rice Hybrid:
-- MOU between PARC and M/S Hubei Provincial Seed Group Co Ltd, China Signed
29 Chinese hybrids are field tested and being compared with 2 local varieties and 3 hybrids
-- Development of Bt. and Coloured Cotton:
-- MOU between PARC Farm 149, Agriculture Division No 8, Xingjian production and Construction Corp China
-- 920 Kg of Bt cotton seed received from China
-- 50 Kg of coloured cotton seed received from China
-- Production technology including drip irrigation etc acquired from China and installed in the field.
-- Six Chinese experts arrived in Islamabad on 31st May 2009 and whole team is still working in the field.
-- Crop planted in Punjab and Sindh - 4 sites in each province
-- Number of bolls, lint per boll and yield of Chinese cotton will almost be double than local.
Oilseeds:
-- MOU between PARC and M/S Hubei Provincial Seed Group Co Ltd, China
-- Chinese experts will be visiting Pakistan in October 2009.
-- Work will started in the current season on canola
-- 20 hybrids will be evaluated.
4. Improvement of Sugarcane Varieties:
-- Five experts of Guangzhou Sugarcane Research Institute will visit Pakistan in October 2009.
-- Work is in progress
5. Hybridisation and Improvement of Wheat Varieties:
-- Team of Chinese experts visited Punjab and Sindh provinces in September 2009.
Working sites in both the provinces identified.
-- Work is in progress.
C. Popularisation of High Density Mango and Pear Orchards
Mango:
Scope of Project: Adoption of High Density Mango Orchard system in Pakistan. Meeting the standards of world market by using modern practices in mango husbandry.
Economic indicators/Expected Benefits
The production capacity of model nurseries would be around 90000 seedlings per year and if one seedling is sold at Rs 50 then Rs 450000 will be generated. Those funds will be utilised to keep the facilities working. The cost on high size mango tree will be reduced for spraying, pruning and harvesting by adopting high density mango orchard system. Many fold increase of production unit (mango trees) acre will maximise the mango yield.
Pear
Expected Benefits:
-- Improve productivity of the horticultural crop mentioned as a result of research and in turn will improve economic conditions in the villages and fruit growers.
-- Will result in better quality and social benefits
Employment generation both directly and indirectly resulting in:
-- Tree plantation will result in positive impact on environment:
D. Development of hybrids
Development of hybrids (wheat, maize, rice, cotton, sunflower etc) of various commodity crops are under process at National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) to enhance the productivity of these crops.
E. Development of Bioherbicide/Biopesticide plant.
To minimise the socio-environmental hazards, use of in-organic chemicals needs to be reduced. For achieving crop protection, measures like the use of bio-pesticides, bio-herbicides and bio-remediation is being promoted and bio-herbicide and bio-pesticide plants have been installed at NARC for commercial scale production.
F. Alternate Energy Resources:
Efforts are being made for commercial production of Biofuel crops on marginal land with the evaluation and promotion of Jatropha, Salicornia, Caster Bean, Sukhchain, Jojoba and Safflower.
G. New Initiatives and Future Plans
Chinese technology on Saline Agriculture - 50 vegetables, fodders, rice and wheat
-- Further food security dependent on Sindh and Balochistan
All waters usable and no land is wasteland Seawater use - Salicornia, algae, seasalt, sea weeds, fertilisers
Winder, Darwat and Ghabir small dams - survey is in process - potential is unlimited
Benazir Agro-vills
-- Algae production to manage waterlogging - evaporation ponds
-- No free service to foreign countries
-- I. Azakhaili Buffalo
-- Selected from Swat for conservation and further studies
Crossing with local buffalo
Goat Milk
-- Readily digestible Fat content 4%
-- Rich in calcium and vitamins
-- Prevention of diseases
-- Respiratory
-- Assimilation of facts
-- Allergy
-- Goat milk contains higher contents of medium chain fatty acids, minerals, vitamins ( B12and D) protein and lipids from that of cow milk having medicinal value establishment of nurseries which can be a source of dwarf and semi dwarf varieties.