Water saving is need of the time and drip irrigation and high efficiency irrigation system installation can help a lot in saving available water. This was stated by a spokesman of the Punjab Agriculture Department here on Tuesday. Spokesman said that Pakistan is ranked at 7th in the world facing water scarcity problem. He disclosed that during initial days of Pakistan, every citizen has availability of water for himself up to 5 to 6 thousand cubic meters, which has now diminished to one thousand cubic meters and till 2025 it will be available up to 800 cubic meters for every citizen.
Pakistan utilized 93% of available water for agriculture purpose and rest of 7% for other usage. Spokesman disclosed that as per report received from IRSA, water for agriculture purpose will available in lesser quantity than needful during Rabi and Kharif season. Spokesman also indicated that water scarcity in our country is due to many reasons i.e. Indian water aggression against Pakistan, population, climatic change etc.
Spokesman also said that Agriculture Department in collaboration with World Bank is encouraging drip irrigation under on-going Punjab Irrigated-Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project (PIPIP) to overcome scarcity of water. Under this project, Agriculture Department is installing drip & sprinkler irrigation on subsidy basis in the fields of farmers. Drip irrigation system is suitable for crop cultivation when irrigation water or rainwater is not enough for conventional farming. This technology, so far, has been adopted by many farmers across Punjab owing to acute shortage of river water and limited rains.
Keeping in view its high efficiency in conserving water, increasing per acre yield and reducing cost of cultivation, there is a need to create awareness among farmers about the drip irrigation system. With this technology, the farmers could save 60% electricity and diesel costs augmenting per acre yield by 100%. It is need of time to move towards modern resource conservation technologies such as drip irrigation to cope with the situation of water scarcity in upcoming years. Spokesman also said that need of time is to start water saving awareness campaign. Water saving is need of time as next century; wars will be fought over water. Drip irrigation and High Efficiency Irrigation System installation can help a lot in saving available water, the spokesman concluded.