Trip Report - Pakistan (28-30 March, 2001)

Prepared by : Jagadish Timsina, University of Melbourne

Submitted to : Tony Fischer, ACIAR, Canberra

Cc: David Connor, Liz Humphreys, Peter Hobbs, Ken Sayre, M.A. Gill, Raj Gupta, Greg Hamilton

1. M. Siddiq Akbar Bokhari's farm in Multan, Central Pakistan.

Visited Bokhari's farm in Multan in central Pakistan, which is about 350 km southwest of Lahore. I was accompanied by Dr. Maqsood Ahmed Kamboh, Soil Scientist/Physiologist (Salinity), On-farm water management division (OFWM), Lahore. Dr. Komboh has an M. Sc. Degree in Soil Science and Ph.D. in Physiology (salinity).

Multan district is predominantly practiced with cotton-wheat cropping systems. Cotton-wheat has been a dominant cropping system in central-eastern parts of Pakistan. Bokhari is a progressive farmer and owns 2000 acres land since 1959. He has been growing all of his lands with cotton-wheat on raised beds since 1969, and now on permanent beds (bed width of ~100 cm from furrows to furrows and height of ~30 cm) of various ages, ranging from 10-15 years old. The bed widths are much wider than used in RW areas in India and Pakistan with light-textured soils, but much smaller than used in heavy-textured soils in Australia. Soil of the Bokhari's farm is medium textured (sandy loam to clay loam) and saline, and rainfall is 150 to 200 mm per year. His fields are irrigated mostly with groundwater (salt content of 1200 ppm) but also some with river water from Chenab River. He grows tall and long-maturing type cotton, as against shorter types commonly grown in Australia.

Wheat is sown (relayed) under zero tillage (ZT) by broadcast after the first picking of cotton, as against by line sowing after the harvest of rice as in all other bed demonstrations and trials in Pakistan and India. The relay sowing of wheat implies that wheat and cotton grow together in the field for some time. Few dominant weeds that prevail under ZT before sowing wheat are controlled manually, and the beds are also hoed by rotovation before sowing cotton. Cotton is sown on large holes spaced apart on the sides of the beds, with compost and SSP applied to those holes before sowing of cotton. He reckons compost and SSP can help conserve/retain moisture and the nutrients are released slowly. Compost is prepared in his own farm by mixing FYM, berseem leaves, molasses, urine, water on a cement pond, which is then filled-up with water and kept for 10 days. Since P is immobile, this way of application of SSP helps improve use efficiency and uptake of P.

Salts were encrusted all over the shoulders of the raised beds, but the crop growth was not different from other parts of the beds. Greg Hamilton from Agriculture Western Australia also observed salt encrustations on the shoulders of those beds prior to cotton harvest last year (personal communication). These observations indicate that there would probably be no salt injury or damage to the roots and also no uptake of salts by roots. This suggests that raised beds could possibly help alleviate salt damage. Bokhari recalls that his farm was totally unused in the early 60s because of salts all over the field, but now because of planting of cotton-wheat on beds, the land has been totally rehabilitated, and also there is an increase in cropping intensity and significant increase in productivity of his land. Greg Hamilton has documented some aspects of Bokhari's farm in the Vol. 2, No. 3 (1999) issue of Raised Bed Farming Newsletter. Because of success that Bokhari has achieved from permanent raised beds, many other farmers in the district have now started growing cotton-wheat on beds, mostly with success.

There is an office complex of OFWM division in Multan city. The division, overall coordinated by Dr. Gill, has been working in Bokhari's farm for a number of years. The division has substantially improved the irrigation delivery channels/mechanisms in his farm, resulting into better furrow irrigation for bed cropping. As a result, both the field-application efficiency and WUE have been improved considerably. Bokhari also takes technical advices of cotton research institute located in Multan city.

On the way from Lahore to Multan, I observed many salt affected and degraded lands, and salts were seen in large amounts on the soil surface, and on the sides/shoulders of irrigation channels. Pakistan has approximately 6 Mha of lands affected by salinity and sodicity. I also observed winter maize and recently-sown summer maize, sugarcane, potato, tomato, brinjal, and some other vegetables grown on beds. Almost 90% percent of the area were covered by wheat, while 10% with other crops such as berseem, mustard, and vegetables. There were also some areas where agroforestry was practised, with wheat and trees grown together.

Although due to prolonged drought, and perhaps the worst drought in 30 years, total wheat production in Pakistan is expected to decrease by 3.6 M metric tons from 21.1 M metric tons in 1999-2000 to approximately 17.5 M metric tons in 2000-2001, the wheat crop from Lahore to Multan, as being irrigated, did not seem to be much affected by drought. I was told, and also observed personally on the way, that the crop has been mostly damaged in Barani (rainfed) areas in south and western Pakistan.

2. Nuclear Institute of Agriculture and Biology (NIAB), Faislabad

On the way to Multan, visited the Director of NIAB, Dr. M. Mohsin Iqbal, who briefed me about the activities and achievements of NIAB. Dr. S. Sarwar Alam (Editor-in-Chief, Pak. J. of Biol. Sci.), Prof. M.A.A. Quraishi (Dept. of Forestry, Univ. of Agric., Faislabad), Dr. Z. Aslam (NIAB), and Maqsood Ahmed Kamboh (OFWM division) also joined in discussion. Major activities/achievements of the institute included, crop varieties developed through mutation breeding (so far 4 varieties of cotton, one of rice, 2 of chickpea, 8 of mungbean have been developed, and several others are on pipeline), integrated pest management in cotton, biochemistry and natural products, studies on nutrient-use efficiency of crops, and soil biology, all using nuclear techniques. Another institute, National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), is also located in Faislabad, close to NIAB. The NIBGE works on BNF aspects. N-15 work is done in both institutes.

Also briefly visited Faislabad University of Agriculture, which is across the road from the NIAB.

3. On-farm water management division (OFWM), Lahore:

Visited Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad Gill, Director General Agriculture (Water Management) Punjab, and Dr. Maqsood Ahmed Kamboh.

Dr. Gill is extremely enthusiastic, energetic, and innovative scientist, and is willing to cooperate with Australian scientists on the promotion of resource conservation technologies (RCTs), such as zero tillage (ZT) and bed planting (BP) in Pakistan. Dr. Gill and his group have been working with farmers on RCTs in two villages in the RW tracts of Punjab under the Department for International Development (DFID) project, one at Chak 26 UCC at Mureedkey near Lahore and another at 7 Chalk, Bhalwal in MONA. I visited the village at Murreedkey.

Visited a farmer, Mrs. Nasreem Farooq, who has 22 acres of wheat under ZT sown by zero-till seed drill and 16 acres of wheat under BP sown by bed former/planter on a sandy loam soil. Prior to the sowing of wheat, rice was harvested by sickles just above the soil surface, and she seems to be happy to do this way without much problems of residue retention. Wheat variety, Enqualab, at 60 kg/ha, was sown on 21 November under ZT and on 2 December under BP. I estimated about 4.5 t/ha on ZT and 4.8-5.2 t/ha under BP. The neighboring plots under conventional tillage (CT) could yield between 4 to 5 t/ha. She started growing wheat under ZT 3 years ago and BP last year. She will start some rice transplanted on beds this year. She is pretty much convinced of growing wheat on ZT and on beds, and she intends to increase areas under those cultures next year.

Lahore predominantly grows Super basmati variety of rice, which is famous for its quality such as best aroma and long grain. However, Mrs. Farooq is now convinced for replacement of some rice area by maize and sugarcane next year as there will be shortage of water. Her decisions to grow non-rice crops in place of rice also coincides with some of the talks going on in the government level regarding reducing the area under rice and replacing it by less-water requiring crops such as cotton and maize. Sugarcane, though requires more water, has also been an attractive crop because it has better markets and better price.

Visited another farmer's field where ZT wheat was grown on 30 acres. This farmer also sowed wheat with ZT drill on rice residues and he perceives no emergence and establishment problems. I estimated about 4 t/ha under ZT, and about 5-10% more under CT.

Visited the farm of Brigadier General Chaudhary Zulfiquar Ahamad, who has 16 acres of local wheat variety, Enqualab 91, on beds with 3 rows per bed, on a heavy clay soil. The previous crop was maize (maize-wheat cropping system), and since incorporation and decomposition of maize residues was not a major problem, residue retention was not an issue there. Ken Sayre, during his visit in early February, estimated about 8-9 t/ha of wheat yield on those beds. When I visited, the crop was at soft dough stage and the heavy rains and storms accompanied by hail on the previous day of my visit caused almost 100% of plants flat and lodged. The crop was, however, excellent and if there were such no damage, I would also estimate similar yield level. Though the farmer was saying that there would not be much damage, I would reckon at least 10-15% yield loss on those beds. The nearby wheat sown on flat resulted into only about 5% of plants lodged. On beds, plants were taller and ears longer and heavier than on flats. I counted grains and there were, on average, 75 grains/ear, with average weight of 6 g of physiologically matured undried ear. The farmer blamed the variety for lodging, i.e. he reckons varieties with shorter ears with heavier grain would be better for beds as against longer ears with heavier grain of Enqualab 91. The crop duration was much longer (sowing 5th November and expected harvesting 20th April) than for any other varieties grown in the area. My interaction with other farmers in the area, however, revealed that Brigadier General used excessively high seed rate (~ 140 kg/ha) and high fertilizers (?) on beds. This needs more interaction with Brigadier General and I apologise if the information provided by other farmers about his farm are incorrect.

No doubt, RCTs such as ZT and BP have been popular and areas have been increased dramatically in Pakistan over the past 3 to 4 years. In 1996-97, the area under ZT was only 50 acres, which increased to 540 acres in 1997-98, to 2193 acres in 1998-99, to 11592 acres in 1999-2000, and is expected to be 50000 acres in 2000-2001. The number of sites with ZT demonstration trials and plots also increased from 12 in 1996-97 to 542 in 1999-2000, and the zero-till drill purchased by farmers increased from 13 in 1998-99 to 500 in 2000-2001. Likewise, number of sites under bed planting in 1999-2000 were 63, with an area of 137 acres, with 5 bed planters purchased by farmers. This year the number of sites and area under bed planting have increased considerably, and more farmers have purchased and owned the bed planters (Director General, 2000a).

Dr. Gill tried some transplanted rice (TPR) on beds last year but there were no significant benefits in yield as compared to traditional way of growing rice (Director General, 2000b). This year, he plans to grow both TPR and dry-seeded rice (DSR) on beds on several sites, with careful measurements of water and yields.

An independent study on the impact assessment of ZT wheat under DFID project conducted by IWMI in 1999 (Mirza, 1999), summarised the following the benefits of ZT in Punjab of Pakistan:

1. Saves cultivation cost

2. Early sowing possible

3. Saves 30-50% irrigation water in case of first irrigation after sowing, and 15-20% in subsequent irrigations

4. Improves soil fertility

5. Enhances water and fertilizer-use efficiency

6. Accelerates decay process of rice stubble, which improves soil microbial activities

7. Increases yield by 15-20%

4. Rice research station, Kala Shah Kaku, Lahore:

Visited Dr. R. A. Mann, Agronomist and In-Charge of PARC team, at rice research station at Kala Shah Kaku. Dr. Mann is an old mate of mine at IRRI, and has substantial publications and experiences on RW systems research in Pakistan. Dr. Mann says that they have a multi-disciplinary team of researchers based at Kala Shah Kaku, and is interested to collaborate with Australian scientists on RW research. Dr. Mann has currently an experiment on maize on beds. This upcoming season, there will be experiments on water saving techniques such as alternate wetting and drying (AWD), bed planting, DSR etc. on rice, followed by wheat on beds.

Recommendation to ACIAR:

Cotton-wheat is the most dominant cropping systems in Pakistan, rice-wheat is the second important cropping system. Cotton is grown in ~ 3 Mha, while rice is grown in 2.3 Mha in Pakistan, with wheat following either rice or wheat in about 80% of the areas, and also either after other crops or as a sole crop in drier areas. Pakistan certainly deserves an ACIAR project on cotton-wheat. The site for research should be somewhere in Multan district, and collaborators should be from OFWM division and cotton research institute, and probably from NARC/PARC too. Both Pakistani and Australian researchers must discuss thoroughly with local farmers, and especially with Mr. Bokhari, during planning and project development as well as during the project implementation. The most probable theme of the research should be alleviating salinity and waterlogging in cotton-wheat systems through permanent raised beds.

Acknowledgement

My travel to Pakistan was funded by ACIAR. OFWM division provided me local transport.

References:

Director General, 2000a. Directorate General Agriculture (Water management- Punjab), 2000a. RCT in rice tract of the Punjab- an overview.

Director General, 2000b. Pilot testing of RCTs under DFID-CIMMYT Project. Annual Torgress Report 1999-2000. 36 pp.

Hamilton, G., 1999. Permanent raised bed farming in Pakistan. In: Raised Bed Farming Newsletter. Pp. 5.

Mirza, Z.I., 1999. Impact assessment of RCT to enhance wheat productivity - farmers' perceptions and observational evidences from RCT trials in Pakistan's Punjab Province. RW Cropping System, IWMI, Pakistan. 14 pp.