Poor extension services responsible for lower agriculture growth

LAHORE: Mumtaz Khan Manais is a progressive farmer who obtained 78 maunds of wheat per acre in 2014 –three times higher than the national average. Earlier, he won gold medal from federal government as one of his cows produced 52 litres of milk per day. In an interview with The News he discussed the threats, challenges and opportunities Pakistan faces in agriculture.

Q: What role provincial agricultural extension departments play in boosting production?

A: Extension departments are relics of British era and are no more needed. Their main function is to keep the farmers aware of all procedures that should be adopted from sowing to harvesting in a crop. This includes timely information about the pest threats, timely use of exact drugs to destroy them.

They have to recommend proper seeds that should be used by the farmers and the amount of different fertilisers. Currently, this information is decimated to only one percent of the farmers. The extension departments are white elephants that should be closed and replaced with agriculture TV channel. This channel should transmit only agriculture news round the clock.

The farmers should be passed on the latest information and procedures to be adopted for sowing and managing the crops. These awareness programmes should be repeated four times a day so that information is passed on to the farmers that missed seeing the programme earlier.

The exclusive agriculture channel should be financed by the state. It could get sponsorship from seed suppliers, pesticide producers and importers, tractor and agriculture implant producers and manufacturers of fertilisers.

Weather forecast is also very important for the farmers. In the United States, the US government provides farmers with one-year forecast in advance about the weather conditions in their area. And each day it issues bulletin that gives precise forecast of next ten days.

Pakistan has the technology to provide the same information but decimation of information is weak. An agriculture channel could plug this information gap.

Q: What is the most lucrative opportunity in agriculture?  

A: Our continued dependence on imported edible oil is a major threat to our economy and agriculture. Last year we imported edible oil worth $3 billion.

Cotton crop in Pakistan is the major source of indigenous edible oil. It saves us $1.5 billion annually. Unfortunately we have not been able to exploit the potential of our cotton crop.

India has tripled its cotton productivity in 20 years, while we are producing less cotton than what we produced two decades back.

We could increase our cotton productivity three times like India if we adopt better yielding BT cotton varieties from a reliable source. There would be no need to import edible oil after this.

Pakistan would save $1 billion foreign exchange that it spends on import of cotton. In addition, the surplus cotton would also fetch around $2 billion. By realising the actual potential of cotton only, we can save $6 billion of foreign exchange.

Q: What about brewing water crisis?

A: This crisis is the result of our neglect of available water resources. Currently many farmers are using conservation techniques to minimise the use of water. But in medium term we are likely to face acute water shortage as no new reservoirs are planned in the medium term at least.

Q: What are the factors that increase the productivity of crops?

A: There are 47 factors that every farmer should practice to ensure optimum yield. The fact that our national crop yield is dismally low depicts that our farmers are not following best practices.

The main practices in this regard are to choose the best available seed that suits their soil. They should regulate the Ph of the irrigation water and prepare the soil mechanically for cultivation.

The seed bed should be prepared in a manner that ensures that 100 percent of the seed sowed germinate. Average germination of seeds unfortunately is only 60 percent. It is because farmers avoid row combing that reduces the lumps in the soil to very small size. Proper and uniform irrigation is essential.

The farmer has to remain vigilant throughout the cultivation cycle against pests and use proper drugs to eliminate them. Weeds should be removed through use of weedicides. Only 10 percent farmers’ use drugs to destroy weeds with the result that in some farms, the number of weeds is higher than the sowed crop. Weeds reduce the crop production by up to 30 percent.