|
Improving
agricultural productivity
By Bilal Hassan
The Punjab government has decided to provide modern
agricultural inputs to farming community. These inputs are
diversified and include approved or certified seed, good
quality water for irrigation, fertilizers, weedicides and
pesticides.
 Besides,
decision has also been taken to provide loans on soft term
basis, the best way to market agriculture produce and provide
laser tractors to farmers at the union council level.
It is a right step in the right direction as the modernization
of agriculture depends on the availability of modern inputs
along with mechanization. And modern agriculture is imperative
to get maximum crop yield.
The gap in average and potential yields is due to the
traditional method of cultivation. Replacement with modern
methods is the necessity of the modern day. Thus, the Punjab
government's decision is most welcome.
 The
share of agriculture in the gross domestic product (GDP) is 24
per cent. About 68 per cent of the population has direct or
indirect link with this sector. Out of the total, 48 per cent
of labour is employed in it.
The agro-based industries are fed with the raw material
accrued from the agriculture. The provision of modern
agricultural inputs will bring about a shift in the method of
cultivation. There will be a significant change in the
attitude of farmers.
Future production of a crop depends on seeds. The poorer the
quality, the lower will be the yield per unit area and vice
versa. The government should give proper attention to the
dissemination of the approved seed. High germination
percentage, physical and genetic purity, vigour and viability
are the features of seed for sowing.
Impure seed with low germination percentage will result in low
plant population and hence low yield per unit area. If sown
seed is of bad quality, the other practices how much efficient
they be, will not bring about any increase in the yield.
Keeping in view the decision of the Punjab government,
increase in the availability of certified seed will greatly
help in pushing the graph of crop production upward. Late
sowing of crops, particularly, wheat is one of the major cause
of low yield per unit area.
In cotton-wheat and rice-wheat cropping systems, the late
sowing of wheat is unavoidable. The only solution to it is the
evolution of short-duration varieties of cotton and rice. This
is the main area which requires proper attention.
 With
the raising of exhaustive crops year after year, the soil
becomes depleted with the nutrients essential for the growth
of plants. Type, amount, method, time and availability of
water are the factors affecting fertilizer use efficiency.
Fertilizer use efficiency is very low in Pakistan,
particularly of nitrogenous and phosphoric fertilizers. The
causes include non-availability of irrigation that induces
volatilization losses, wrong application methods, particularly
of phosphoric fertilizers, leaching losses due to excessive
irrigation in some cases and imbalanced use of fertilizers.
In a similar way, crops require water to yield some produce.
There are critical stages in the life of a plant when it needs
water. Missing irrigation at that stage causes significant
yield reduction.
It is also notable that over- and under- irrigation causes
loss on both ways. On one hand, over-irrigation leads to water
logging by raising the water table and another associated
disease called salinity on the other hand. Both water logging
and salinity render soil unproductive.
Water use efficiency is an important indicator in terms of
yield. Soil management practices viz. soil levelling, tillage,
mulching and incorporation of manures and crop management
practices i.e., sowing time, method, plant population, weeds
and insect/pests and diseases are factors that effect water
use efficiency. Considerable amount can be saved if applied
keeping in view crop growth stages and water use efficiency.
The present system of warabandi is defective in a number of
ways. The farmers at the head receive more water than those at
the tail end. The system forces the farmer to use water on his
turn whether crop needs it or not. Moreover, there exist great
water losses from the system in the form of seepage,
percolation and overflow. It is, therefore, suggested that
such system should be adopted that allows the maximum but
judicious use of water.
 Farmers
in Pakistan are usually unaware of the effects of weeds on the
yield. But, inspite of its heavy toll on the crop plants,
majority does not consider them hostile. A transition in the
minds of farmers is essential. It is impossible to prepare
them to adopt weed control measures. Weeds cause considerable
losses and, under certain conditions, cause complete crop
failure. They increase the cost of production and deteriorate
the quality of the final produce and hence the produce accrues
less market prices. Weeds plants harbour the insect/pests and
disease pathogens as well.
Eradication of weeds is essential to mitigate their
ill-effects. Different methods of weed control viz.
preventive, cultural, physical, mechanical, biological and
chemicals are available. Weeds are eradicated in a better way
by the use of chemicals. Chemical weed control method, though
not environmental-friendly, gives good result in the shortest
time. The government should increase the availability of
weedicides at affordable rate and should popularize the
concept of weed control.
Insects and diseases also damage crop plants and reduces water
and fertilizer use efficiencies by impairing the health of
crop plants. These are better controlled through integrated
pest management (IPM) technique. This allows the use of
insecticides in critical situations when the insect population
crosses the crop injury level. To control diseases, the use of
treated seed with fungicides is important. Use of untreated
seed for sowing is a usual trend. The need, therefore, is to
change this trend.
The decision of providing laser tractors is the most important
change. In the past much attention has not be paid towards the
levelling of land. The levelled land allows uniform emergence
of crop seedlings. This ensures uniform utilization of inputs.
There is a synchronization in the maturity of all plants and
hence it reduces yield losses at the time of harvesting. Under
the levelled field, water use and fertilizer use efficiencies
increase to a considerable amount. It also prevents water
logging and salinity.
Marketing system has a great impact on the cropping system.
The farmers usually grow crops direly needed and which earns
maximum price. Our marketing is not satisfactory. The sugar
cane growers complain about the way the cane is handled. Black
marketing has forced the country to import wheat for 46 years
out of 56 years' history. Improvement in the marketing system
is essential to give impetus to crop production.
The government while distributing modern inputs and laser
tractors should remain careful. Majority of farmers are small
and to ignore them would mean restricting productivity
improvement.
|
Pakissan.com;
|
