01 November 2004	Monday	17 Ramazan 1425

The rice-wheat consortium (RWC) for Indo-Gangetic Plains was established in 1994 for the sustainability of rice-wheat system of South Asia. The present membership of the RWC consists of four national agricultural research systems of Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

It resulted after many years of collaborative research between the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo (CIMMYT), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARI). The four countries have devoted nearly half of their total land area of 402 million hectare to feed and provide livelihood to around two billion people.

Major objectives of the RWC are to strengthen the existing linkages and partnership with the national and international research centres and programmes and advance institution of the region. This would help in developing and deploying more efficient, productive and sustainable technologies for diverse rice-wheat production systems in the Indo-Gangetic Plains produce more food at less cost and improve the livelihood of those involved in agriculture, consequently, decreasing poverty.

To meet the objectives, various resource conservation technologies were developed such as the systems of zero and reduced tillage, bed planting, different rice planting, land levelling and consolidation, increased use of fertilizers and effective weed control, improved rain-fed and irrigation, etc.

Despite these technologies, the consortium with nearly 1.8 million hectares of rice-wheat cropping system is using the zero-tillage on 0.4 million hectares. This includes the area of wheat sown by zero-tillage outside the rice-wheat belt which is likely to increase. Laser land levelling is another area which is increasing the interest of farmers, while bed-furrow planting is still in the initial stages.

One major reason of negligence in implementing resource conservation practices in Pakistan is the disintegration of the unified agricultural education, research and extension system, in 1961. This resulted in poor linkages among the institutes and farmers. Contrary to this, the unified system in India played a major role in adoption of various technologies for sustainable agricultural productivity, resulting in high yields. Our managers and policymakers should learn lessons from this disintegration and take immediate measures to remove the constraint.

Introduction of resource conservation based cropping system is usually of direct benefit to farmers but there are a number of limitations which make its adoption difficult, especially if the concept is new in the region. But on the other hand this also brings a number of benefits to the general public and the national economy. It is in the interest of the government to promote its introduction, especially where the process is not picking up.

In initial stages, a number of investments will be required which may vary from preparation of land for transition to investing in new equipment. At the same time the existing equipment may become obsolete. In this situation the government may decide to provide incentive to farmers in order to facilitate the first step and lower the risk and cost of transition for new equipment. The incentives can be provided indirectly through close technical assistance, subsidies or direct credit payment to farmers for adoption of resource conservation agriculture.

In addition to aforementioned suggestion, the agricultural research institutes of Pakistan involved in rice-wheat consortium of the Indo-Gangetic Plains must develop future plan to further strengthen the resource conservation technology in Pakistan. They should introduce and test the double zero-tillage technology for both rice and wheat as it will cut down all land preparation cost in rice-wheat system. Direct sowing of rice and planting of rice and wheat on permanent beds should also be tested under the condition obtaining in Pakistan as former saves water by 30-40 per cent and the latter by 25 per cent, besides boosting the yields.

The technology is not restricted to the Indo-Gangetic Plains but has spread in vast areas of the US, Brazil, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and is spreading to Southern Africa, Middle-East and Iran.

The government should form a committee of highly competent in-service or retired scientists and related engineers. They should be sent to these countries to study various resource conservation technologies for rice-wheat and other cropping systems and also study the latest rain-water harvesting techniques and submit a report on priority basis as to which techniques have great potentials.

Then these techniques can be tested in different ecological zones of the country for sustainability of agricultural productivity to meet the future needs.