ISLAMABAD: The Punjab government is seeking additional financing of $130 million from the World Bank to improve 5,500 watercourses under the Punjab Irrigated Agricultural Productivity Programme.

The bank is scheduled to approve Punjab government’s request later this month.

Out of the total 59,500 watercourses, about 43,700 have been improved in various projects and government’s national programme for improvement of watercourses. Still, 10,300 watercourses need to be improved in the province.

The total cost of the project is $200m. The beneficiary local farmer organisations will contribute $70m towards the project.

An estimated 40 per cent of water is lost in the unlined watercourses due to seepage, spillage, side leakage and evapotranspiration. Agriculture in Punjab is affected by water-logging and salinity. In central and southern Punjab, rainfall is more sporadic and agriculture is entirely irrigation dependent.

The new World Bank financing would support installation of high efficiency irrigation systems, introduction of modern technologies and methods in irrigated agriculture, assistance in crop diversification and training.

The project will lead to improving productivity of water use in irrigation agriculture. This will be achieved through improved physical delivery efficiency and irrigation practices, crop diversification and effective application of inputs that will translate into greater agricultural output per unit of water used.

Analysis concluded that high efficiency irrigation results in reduced need of farm inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides, as well as reduced vulnerability of crops to pest attacks and proliferation of weeds, leading to less use of pesticides and herbicides.

In addition, fertigation (application of fertilisers or other soil additives through the irrigation system) is done through drip and sprinkler, which results in increased effectiveness of fertilisers with reduced quantities needed.

Similarly, through high efficiency irrigation systems, chemigation (application of pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides) is also done through drip and sprinklers, resulting in effective use of chemicals with reduced quantities needed.

Pakistan’s agriculture sector is heavily depends on irrigation — more than 90 per cent of production is from irrigated lands. However, per capita availability of useable water is decreasing with population growth, pollution and inefficient use of water.

The Director-General Agriculture (Water Management) will continue to be responsible for the implementation of the project, while the Directorate of On-Farm Water Management has demonstrated that it has the capacity to implement such programmes in the Punjab, World Bank says.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2017