PCRWR To Facilitate 100,000 Farmers With Its Irrigation Advisory Service Till 2020

Pakistan Council for Research and Water Resources (PCRWR) has planned to expand the scope of "Irrigation Advisory SMS Service for the Farmers" by increasing the number of registered farmers from existing 20,000 to 100,000 farmers till the year 2020

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Oct, 2019 ) :Pakistan Council for Research and Water Resources (PCRWR) has planned to expand the scope of "Irrigation Advisory SMS Service for the Farmers" by increasing the number of registered farmers from existing 20,000 to 100,000 farmers till the year 2020.

The service was launched on April 18, 2016 as an outcome of international collaboration extended by University of Washington (UW) and NASA with an aim to help reduce over-watering and enhance crop yields for Pakistani farmers.

The University of Washington is providing real time daily Potential Evapotranspiration (ET) and precipitation for entire Pakistan using NASA's remotely sensed data. PCRWR determined crop coefficients (KC) for different crops in different agro-climatic zones of Pakistan.

"PCRWR has planned to extend its irrigation advisory service to 100,000 farmers till the next year for facilitating the farmers of irrigated areas through international and national coordination", PCRWR Chairman Dr Muhammad Ashraf said this while talking to APP.

The service has already been informing the farmers of 41 districts (irrigated areas) about their net weekly irrigation requirements, considering Evapotranspiration (ET) and precipitation.

Dr Ashraf said around 90 percent of the water was consumed in the agriculture sector of the country and most of it was wasted due to improper utilization. The objective behind initiating this service was to conserve this water through educating farmers about actual water requirement for their crops.

The farmers, through this service, get weekly information on how much water their crop is needed and if there is chances of any rain or not during the next week.

The chairman said through this service, "if we can even save only a few percent of the whole crop will be a big achievement for us and help overcome the looming threat of acute water scarcity in the years to come".

A survey by the PCRWR found that farmers who used the text message alerts reported a 40 percent savings in water while their income has been doubled as they got more crops by applying the correct amount of water.

Dr Ashraf said this service was introduced in Pakistan for the first time and now it is being followed by India and Bangladesh.

/395