Mechanized farming is imperative to enhance sugarcane production in the country in order to cater to domestic needs and fetch precious foreign exchange
Mechanized farming is imperative to enhance sugarcane production in the country in order to cater to domestic needs and fetch precious foreign exchange.
This was stated by Additional Director General (Farm & Training) Agriculture Punjab Dr Ishtiaq Hussain while addressing a meeting at Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) on Monday.
He said that sugarcane is a cash crop which played a pivotal role in stabilizing agri economy. He said that Pakistan is ranked among 5 top sugarcane producing countries of the world.
He said that per acre production of sugarcane is recorded at 709 maunds at global level whereas this ratio is 690 maunds in Punjab do to not using mechanized farming techniques. “It means we can compete with the global ratio of sugarcane production easily if we increase our production by adopting mechanized farming”, he added.
Speakers told that there is a considerable mechanization gap, especially in the area of sugarcane planting, interculture, plant protection, harvesting and ratoon management. Therefore it is necessary that concentrated efforts be made for adoption, development and popularization of sugarcane machinery for various operations.
The flat system of planting involves repeated ploughing using country plough, compacting by planking, opening shallow furrows (8-10 cm deep) at 75 cm, placing setts manually behind the plough, and covering setts by planking. It is a labour intensive operation, experts told.
Dr Shahid Afghan CEO Sugarcane Research Development board, sugarcane expert Dr Akhlaq Mudassar, entomologist Dr Amir Rasool and others also spoke in the meeting.
Later, the meeting approved sugarcane production project 2023-24 after thorough discussion on various issue.
Originally published at Urdu Point