Advisory For Baharia Sunflower Cultivation

Advisory for Baharia sunflower cultivation

The agriculture experts have advised farmers to start Baharia sunflower cultivation immediately and complete it by mid of February to get a bumper crop

FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Jan, 2022 ) :The agriculture experts have advised farmers to start Baharia sunflower cultivation immediately and complete it by mid of February to get a bumper crop.

A spokesman for the agriculture department told APP here on Tuesday that from January 1 to mid February was the best suitable time for Baharia cultivation of sunflower, therefore, growers should immediately start sunflower cultivation and complete it by mid of February as late sowing can not only damage quality of the grain but it also cause loss in production.

He said growers should cultivate approved sunflower varieties like Hi-sun-33, Hi-sun-39, Agora-4, T-40318, US-666 and Augson-5264 because these were not only disease resistant but also give a bumper yield.

"Sunflower is an important edible oil producing crop which can help Pakistan to trim its import bill of edible oil. It takes 130 days only for its maturity with comparatively less cost and very high dividend", he added.

Meanwhile, Director Agriculture Chaudhary Abdul Hameed said that the agriculture department had evolved a comprehensive strategy to implement Prime Minister's Agriculture Emergency Program for increasing production of oil-seed crops.

In this regard, a number of teams of the agriculture department have been activated for training and guidance of sunflower growers in Faisalabad while the government also offered subsidy of Rs 5,000 per acre on cultivation of oil-seed crops. The teams were imparting training to sunflower growers by arranging awareness sessions at village level.

The field staff was also helping and guiding farmers in purchase of sunflower seeds and its in-time cultivation, he added.

Responding to a query, he said farmers should cultivate sunflower after harvesting sugarcane crops as it was a cash crop which would play a pivotal role not only in catering domestic requirements but also in lessening financial constraints of growers.

To another query, he said vouchers were provided in sunflower seed bag and farmers should send card number through SMS on 8070 after that they would receive a message which would help them to obtain Rs1,000 out of Rs 5,000 subsidy from a nearby mobile merchant shop whereas remaining amount of the subsidy Rs 4000 would be paid to them on the time of harvesting of oil-seed crop. Subsidy would be provided to the registered farmers up to 20 acres for sunflower cultivation, he added.

He said that the agriculture department had also invited applications from sunflower growers for competition of its production. The registered growers of 15 districts, including Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Bhakkar, Deri Ghazi Khan, Khanewal, Layyah, Lodhran, Mianwali, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Okara, Rahim Yar Khan, Rajanpur, Sialkot and Vehari, could apply till January 25 and the government would provide them Rs15,000 per acre as expenditures of experimental plot.

The application forms are available in offices of Assistant Director Agriculture and Agriculture (Extension) Officer while it can also be downloaded from the website www.agripunjab.com.pk, he said.