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"Zero tillage was not promoted properly to the real clientele: the average Pakistani wheat farmer."
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--by Mushtaq A Gill, Director General, OFWM Pakistan
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Pakistan Puts Aside the Plow
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Water Savings
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With Tillage Less is More
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Getting Beds in a hurry
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Entrepreneurial Farmers
 
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Speaking on why zero tillage was not adopted sooner for wheat in Pakistan, despite successful experiments in the mid-1980s, Mushtaq Ahmad Gill, director general of On-Farm Water Management, Punjab Province, Pakistan, combines boardroom terminology with a crusader's zeal. "Zero tillage was not promoted properly to the real clientele: the average Pakistani wheat farmer," he says. "We decided that, instead of only working for the farmers--that is, doing the trials--now we would work with farmers." This meant that farmers not only did the trials themselves, but paid for them and for the use of equipment.
Forty Percent Water Saving
Through this approach and because benefits are good, in a few short years zero tillage has spread to nearly 5,000 hectares in Pakistan. One of its chief selling points is a 25-40% water savings. "Freshwater resources are depleting, and many farmers are forced to irrigate with saline water now," Gill says.
Part of the package Gill and his team promote involves laser leveling of farmland and proper layout of fields and irrigation channels, practices that further enhance water-use efficiency. Finally, the group has promoted farmers' access to equipment and encouraged actual purchases. "Our method is to work one season in a village, providing the equipment, and then tell them, 'Okay, if you like the seed drill, go buy it,' and give them the address of a supplier. Then we move on to other villages," Gill explains.
According to agronomist and Gill associate, Hafiz Mujeeb-Ur-Rehman, from 1998 to 2000 drill purchases shot up from only 13 to 113. Gill says the price (around US$ 600) has held steady or actually dropped, because new suppliers are entering the market.
With Tillage, Less Is More
Getting to this point has been a battle for Gill. Skepticism among researchers and extension workers still runs high, their main worry being the stem borer, an insect pest that attacks the rice stubble. According to studies, though, other organisms in the stubble serve as a natural check on borer numbers. Even farmers, who had long used as many as ten tractor passes to sow wheat, were initially reluctant to commit precious resources to a seemingly outlandish practice.
Mushtaq Ahmad Gill, Director General of the On-Farm Water Management in the Pakistan's Punjab Province says, "We have to produce more food with less land, less water, less energy, less fertilizer. This is our vision."
There is a saying in Pakistan: 'The more you till, the more you get,' " Gill says. "Farmers worried that wheat would not sprout in rice stubble, that there would be weeds and borers, even that the stubble itself would sprout again. When we proposed to plant a small demonstration on one farmer's field, he agreed, but when we began to work, the relatives came by and demanded that we stop. Eventually, though, we managed to get one acre in, and as soon as farmers saw how it germinated, they were after us to plant any remaining land they had."
Getting into Beds in a Hurry
Convinced of the utility of raised beds for wheat during a visit to Ludhiana, India, in 1998, Gill decided to go straight to his now-friendly clients the farmers. "We asked for help from Peter Hobbs of CIMMYT, who got a bed planter airlifted through the Consortium to our manufacturers. We tried the practice at 5 or 6 sites during 1998-99, and it worked! So, the following season we arranged trials on 63 sites in 8 districts of Punjab Province. Village data from these plantings show a 30% water savings, a 17% yield gain, a similar increase in fertilizer-use efficiency, and savings in herbicides of four dollars per hectare. When farmers saw the results, they got motivated."
Farmers as Entrepreneurial Resource Managers
According to Gill, resource management is the key to future food security in Pakistan. "There are 3.5 million new Pakistanis per year--12,000 daily--demanding food, a place to live, water, a better environment. All this in a country like ours means we have to increase our resource productivity: produce more food with less land, less water, less energy, less fertilizer. This is our vision."
He emphasizes that improved tillage techniques will not work well in isolation. Fields must be properly surveyed, designed, and leveled. Also, equipment should be simple, locally manufactured, and within farmers' means. "Future research and development here will rest largely with private enterprise, farmer organizations, and entrepreneurs, instead of governments. We hope that our client farmers will also work as salespersons of these technologies."
Finally, Gill says that resource conserving tillage practices would not have spread in Pakistan without support from the Rice-Wheat Consortium  and CIMMYT. "The Consortium has been a prime mover. They have arranged traveling seminars, the supply of equipment, visits of farmers and technicians, communication materials. Peter Hobbs motivated us to take things off the shelf, and Ken Sayre has helped refine bed planting equipment and practices." Gill also cites Ashraf Chaudhary of Massey University, New Zealand, and the New Zealand Overseas Development Agency, as providing crucial, continual support.