Growing cotton and wheat zero-til (ZT) in wheat-cotton system

About 45 % wheat is produced in cotton belt of Pak-Punjab province, so wheat-cotton is the major cropping pattern here. Wheat is often delay planted after cotton, sometimes as late as late December or early January. Yields are, therefore, low. So relay planting of wheat was undertaken jointly with Dir/cotton in Cotton Res. area. Wheat was broadcast sown in standing cotton in November in submerged cotton beds. Relay wheat yielded higher than the TP wheat by a .4t/ha margin. Wheat was followed by 0-til cotton in May on previous cotton crop beds after reshaping to test the possibility of 0-til cotton planting. Germination was good (see pic. below) despite odds proving possibility of cotton planting through 0-til method. Parallel with this cotton was also planted 0-til in cotton-cotton system. Feb/March planting of cotton is gaining ground due to its high yield and rising cotton international prices. March planted 0-til cotton was a success too. 

ZT cotton in cotton mono cropping system

ZT cotton in wheat-cotton cropping system

Dir/Cotton is very satisfied with the results despite their initial hesitation (See the pic above) and is a forceful advocate of 0-til planting in cotton now. There are certain hick ups in the way to materialize it, however. Cotton is hill planted manually on beds and relay wheat planting in cotton on beds require machinery. Availability and acceptance of machinery are both a stumbling block in Pakistan situation. So CSISA, Pakistan is working on a two pronged strategy; machinery based and manual. Starting next wheat season we are planning to try 0-til wheat sowing by broadcast after rice to enable 0-til benefits to vast majority of farmers who don’t own 0-til drills. Broadcast DSR is already more popular than drill planted. Handling drills and their calibrations are something farmers don’t relish. So a cheap alternative seems necessary for the interim period until drills availability and use become popular.

Expanding reach of DSR in Pakistan-Punjab

Vachhoki is a typical Punjabi village located about 100 km North West of Lahore in the heart of rice growing tract. The major cropping pattern is rice-wheat. Mostly scented basmati rice is grown in the village. The village comprises of 4000 acres. Last year two enterprising farmers, Mr. Rana Gulzar Ahmad and Mr. Rana Ihsan-ul-Haq, undertook DSR on a 7 acre area. They harvested 5.5 t/ha from DSR compared to 5 t/ha from traditional puddled transplanted rice. Happy with the results they have jointly planted 40 acres rice this season. Also, 10 other farmers have joined the bandwagon and undertook DSR planting on another 30 acres. So the DSR has increased both in number of farmers and area cultivated. 

  For details click the link below

https://sites.google.com/site/csisaportal/Home/announcements/expandingreachofdsrinpakistan-punjab

CSISA staff helping CSISA gardener weed out the back lawn of CSISA, Pakistan office

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DG Research distributes CSISA internship certificates

Nine interns working with CSISA, Pakistan completed their internship end of June, 2011. Two of the interns were working on CSISA stipend, 7 others were placed by UAF with CSISA, Pakistan for training in resource conservation technologies. They worked from 3 to 6 months. CSISA assigned them separate projects each. At the conclusion of internship CSISA, Pakistan held a certificate distribution ceremony at Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad and DG Research handed over the certificates to the interns. At the end of internship program UAF evaluated the interns for the performance. UAF has placed 116 interns with various organizations/specialists and 8 with CSISA, Pakistan out performed other interns by securing 29 marks out of 30. CSISA Extension Agronomist Rana Farman Ali Khan made a presentation on this occasion, his presentation was rated high compared to other presentations by AARI specialists.

DG Research (center) along with CSISA staff and interns (Group photo at the occasion)

An intern receiving certificate from DG Research in presence of Country Coordinator