Time to adopt precision
agriculture
The need to look for
smart techniques that reduce the cost of production,
increase yields, and are safer too. That is where precisions
agriculture offers solutions. It may not be possible at this
point in time to introduce precision engineering
technologies employed by farmers in advanced countries, such
as GPS equipped crop yield monitors, and sensor systems to
measure plants chlorophyll levels as well as water
condition. But there are other simpler, low cost techniques
that can help increase productivity, like smart sprayers and
controllers suggested by discussants at the consultative
meeting. Equally import is the need for better management of
soil and crop variability.
Speaking at a consultative
meeting on precision agriculture the other day, Vice
Chancellor of the University of Agriculture at Faisalabad
noted the unhappy reality that inefficient farming methods
are making our cost of production higher than in most other
countries, creating difficulties for the farming
communities.
And, of course, poor farming techniques leading to poor crop
outcomes threaten Pakistan’s future food security.
Just across the border Indian
Punjab boasts nearly double the rate of per acre yield than
in this country after having embraced efficient agricultural
practices and co-operative farming.
Here too, as the participants of
the consultative meeting noted, progressive farmers are
getting 80 maunds per acre – for wheat crop – against an
average per acre production of 28 maunds.
The gap between the potential
yield and what the small farmers manage to produce is much
too large.
One of the prevalent
misconceptions is that the higher use of fertilisers,
pesticides and herbicides – all expensive inputs – is the
only way to increase productivity, whereas variables like
soil and crop characteristics also happen to be vital
determinants.
The practice also raises concerns about implications for
human health.
In fact, critics of
chemicals-driven high yield policy in the Indian Punjab
point out that a particularly worrisome side-effect of the
excessive use of cacogenic elements containing chemicals is
the rise in various life threatening diseases among
consumers.
In other words, too much
reliance on artificial fertilisers or other toxic chemicals
to destroy pests or unwanted vegetation without proper
assessment is inadvisable.
Hence the need to look for
smart techniques that reduce the cost of production,
increase yields, and are safer too. That is where precisions
agriculture offers solutions.
It may not be possible at
this point in time to introduce precision engineering
technologies employed by farmers in advanced countries, such
as GPS equipped crop yield monitors, and sensor systems to
measure plants chlorophyll levels as well as water
condition.
But there are other simpler,
low cost techniques that can help increase productivity,
like smart sprayers and controllers suggested by discussants
at the consultative meeting.
Equally import is the need
for better management of soil and crop variability.
For that the agricultural science community and relevant
government departments in the provinces ought to get their
respective act together.
They need to address
immediate issues first such as a common complaint that the
seeds for various crops gradually lose quality while the
experts fail to come up with newer answers.
And that even though on paper
officials are supposed to be on hand to conduct soil testing
for its suitability to a particular crop, help is not always
forthcoming.
Considering the looming threat of water scarcity and food
shortages in the not too distant future, it hardly needs
saying that necessary precision agriculture technologies and
other methods ought to be adopted before it is too late.
April, 2016
By:
Farah Jamil
Source: AAJ
TV
