Pakistan's Food Basket South Punjab Making Agriculture Profitable By Low Cost New Ideas

MULTAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Jan, 2022 ) :Pakistan's food basket, South Punjab, has witnessed exceptional growth in the outgoing year 2021 by virtue of low cost new ideas that are still on the play making agriculture profitable for farming community for food security and re-energizing cotton economy with the vigor it had once enjoyed.

Cotton farmers earning soared from losses to almost 69 per cent as they earned Rs 1.69 for every rupee they invested, deputy secretary south Punjab agriculture Asif Raza said on Thursday.

Being home to important crops like cotton, wheat, sugarcane, maize besides a variety of orchards, the importance of country's food basket was well gauged by Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar who allocated a huge sum of Rs 11 billion only for agriculture development for the first time in history, Raza said.

Listed among the top five cotton producing countries, Pakistan's silver fiber started witnessing decline after 2014-15 and touched its lowest ebb in 2020, once recorded in 1984, breaking the 36 year old record. Resultantly, farmers slipped to alternate options like maize, pulses, and rice reducing cotton area by 20 per cent in 2021.

Around 2.9 million acre area was cultivated with cotton in South Punjab and less than 200,000 acres in rest of the province in 2021.

Cotton economy was in dejected mode when south Punjab secretariat was established and the new set up had to brainstorm new ideas to jump start growth. Secretary agriculture south Punjab Saqib Ali Ateel, backed by additional chief secretary Captain (retired) Saqib Zafar, enforced country's first modified Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan without seeking extra support from Punjab government.

Exactly 120 cotton demonstration plots were developed in 41 Tehsils of 11 south Punjab districts where IPM model was implemented and advisories were made accessible for farmers.

Raza said IPM model worked and Pakistan witnessed over nine million bales cotton production with south Punjab contributing 56 per cent of it. Cotton witnessed growth rate 49 per cent above the last year with average production touching 729 kilogram per hectare, a new record since 2014, and 64 per cent above the last year's figure.

Cotton farmers earned Rs 1.69 on investment of Rs 1.00 this year, Asif Raza said adding that average production from model plots was recorded 34 Maunds per acre that yielded Rs 3.

63 income on investment of one Rupee.

The IPM model cut pesticides application by 57 per cent saving Rs 40 billion investment of cotton farmers.

South Punjab had produced 9.168 million ton wheat from 6.786 million acres in 2019-20 with an average production of 33.78 Maunds per acre. The production and area increased to 9.239 million ton from 6.794 million acres in 2020-21 averaging 34 Maunds per acre.

Rice recorded 1.061 million ton production from 1.184 million acre area in 2020-21 averaging 22.40 Maunds per acre but rose to 1.411 million ton from 1.433 million acre area in 2021-22 averaging 24.62 Maunds per acre.

Sugarcane production was recorded at 27.81 million ton from 0.894 million acres in 2020-21 averaging 778 Maunds per acre that rose to 31.38 million ton from 1.006 million acres averaging 780 Maunds per acre.

South Punjab produced 0.873 million ton maize from 0.361 million acre area in 2019-20 averaging 60.42 Maunds per acre. However, in 2020-21, 1.613 million ton production was recorded from 0.519 million acre area averaging 77.74 Maunds per acre.

Record increase was witnessed in fruit production. Mango production recorded at 1.291 million ton from 0.238 million acres averaging 135.60 Maunds peracre in 2020-21.

However, in 2021-22, production rose to 1.541 million ton from same area averaging 162 Maunds per acre. Citrus production stood at 0.330 million ton from 0.059 million acre area in 2019-20 averaging 150.78 Maunds per acre which rose to 0.414 million ton in 2020-21 averaging 189.46 Maunds per acre.

South Punjab also witnessed surge in production of tomatoes, onion, Okra and others, the official said. He disclosed that experimental spray of Moringa extract on wheat, maize and other crops as fertilizers stimulant was in progress to improve food quality while magnetic technology was being employed on saline land to make it cultivable. Over 1200 acres barren land was made cultivable by drip irrigation system.

He said farmers could earn Rs 800,000 to a million by inter-cropping of vegetables and fruit.

Asif Raza said deployment of new cost effective techniques besides modern technologies through subsidized schemes coupled with strong contacts with farmers has started paying dividends on way to strengthening agriculture sector.