Agri-expert Suggests Early Harvest Of Sugarcane

D.I.KHAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Aug, 2022 ) :The agriculture expert on Thursday advised the farmers for 15-20 days early harvest of the sugarcane crop as its yield would be decreased due to lodging occurred after heavy rainfall.

Talking to APP, Research Officer at Agriculture Research Institute (ARI), D.I.Khan Muhammad Manzoorul Haq said the long time lodging of the crop would result in reducing the yield besides reduction of sucrose quantity in the crop.

He said the lodging crops also have serious threat of fungi, especially during current humid weather conditions. The Fungi constitute the largest number of plant pathogens and it could cause a range of serious plant diseases, he added.

Moreover, the research officer suggested the farmers to apply fungicide on the seeds of crop before sowing to avoid the yielding loss.

He informed that the ARI has prepared sugarcane seed at 12 acre land for upcoming sowing season and this seed could be sowed in around 200 acres.

He recommended some varieties for sowing during the next season including US-237, US133, US-633, Israr Shaheed and MCP-72/582, saying, these all varieties were available at ARI. He informed that MCP-72/582 was the famous variety among farmers due to its quality of more bricks and maximum sucrose level.

It is pertinent to mention here that the district Dera Ismail Khan produce around three million mounds of sugarcane annually. The sugarcane crop sowed at over 60,000 acre of land across the district with average production of 50 mounds per acre.