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Farmers asked to adopt resource conservation technology
ISLAMABAD (December 24 2002) : In order to keep the soil's organic matter intact, reduce land preparation cost and ensuring timely sowing of wheat, the adoption of the Resource Conservation Technology (RCT) approach by farmers can ensure solution to address these issues, said the sources.
They said that soils in irrigated areas have been degraded over the last 30 years because of extensive tilling for seeding which resulted in organic matter loss over the period.
The Basmati varieties are grown mainly in the rice-wheat area of Punjab because of late maturity of Basmati varieties as there is a little time left for land preparation, they said, and added the land preparation for wheat in rice-wheat zone of the country is an energy extensive and time-consuming operation. For this reason wheat sowing is usually delayed and results in low yield, they added.
The official sources said the Farm Machinery Institute (FMI) and the National Agricultural Research Centre (Narc) of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (Parc) worked for the development of Resource Conservation Technology (Zero-Till) Drill.
The drill not only saves the land preparation cost, but also enables the farmers to timely sow wheat especially in rice-wheat cropping system, they added.
The efforts to develop zero-till drill dates back in mid-80s through introduction of Aitchison drill, which thus manufactured local could not gain popularity due to its high initial cost, ie Rs 80,000 and heavy weight.
The FMI efforts resulted in development of a low-cost, light-weight, multicrop seed-cum-fertiliser zero-till drill in 1992. The imported components used in the manufacture of drill made it expensive for majority of the farmers. Despite field demonstrations in collaboration with Halcrow Rural Management (HRM) and On-Farm Water Management (OWFM), Punjab, the drill could not gain popularity, and only nine drills were sold to the farmers till 1995.
In 1997, the FMI developed a dual mode Resource Conservation Technology (RCT) drill by working round a commercially manufactured Rabi Drill. Consequently, the drill cost was reduced to Rs 20,000 without compromising on the quality of work.
The machine was extensively demonstrated in the rice-wheat areas of Punjab and as a result of its performance around 20 manufacturers in Daska, Punjab are producing this machine. About 1,000 units of the drill are used in the manually-harvested paddy fields of Punjab and more than 0.2 million acres of wheat area was sown with RCT drill in Punjab during 2000-01 crop season.
The main advantages of using RCT drill are Rs 1000 acre saving in land preparation; 30-35 percent saving in irrigation water; retention of optimum soil organic matter levels; increased crop yields by 15-20 percent and most importantly timeliness in wheat sowing.
After successful introduction of the RCT Drill in rice-wheat area of Punjab, Parc is now planning to introduce this technology in rice-wheat area in Sindh. A series of demonstrations of the technology are planned in the mid of December 2002.
It is envisaged that introduction of this technology in Sindh will not only save the farmers from drudgery of land preparation after paddy harvest, but also enable them to sow wheat in time.
Courtesy Business Recorder
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Pakissan.com; Advisory Point
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