THE output of major crops is rising in Sindh as growers use new seed varieties with higher per-hectare yield and better crop-caring and pest-management techniques.

In some cases, larger areas have also been brought under cultivation.

But the growers’ efforts still fall short of exploiting the true potential of farm productivity in the province.

During this cropping year, Sindh’s cotton output is set to cross 4m bales, up from 3.76m bales last year. The province had already produced 3.95m bales up to mid-February, and another 100,000 bales are expected before the end of the cotton season next month.

Meanwhile, the harvesting of wheat has just begun in the province. But agriculture department officials expect the output to exceed 4m tonnes, up from about 3.8m tonnes last year. Provisional estimates for 2014 put rice production in Sindh at around 3.5m tonnes, up from 3.3m tonnes a year ago. And sugarcane output in the province rose past 17.5m tonnes in 2014 from about 15m tonnes in 2013.

Whereas the production of rice has been on the rise for some years (chiefly due to an increase in the area under cultivation), this has not been a decisive factor in the growth in production recorded in cotton, wheat and sugarcane.

Unlike in the past, many cane growers now have more than one cane variety to grow, depending upon the maturity period of a particular variety. This has increased the per-hectare yield, say provincial agriculture department officials

Over the last few years, aggressive buying of rice by exporters and food processing companies at good rates encouraged farmers to grow paddy on more areas, according to Sindh agriculture department officials.

“Though the sugarcane output last year was also partly a result of increased cultivation, better per-hectare yield also mattered,” says one official. And the higher yield, according to him, was a result of a more balanced application of fertilisers, better crop-caring and improved cane-harvesting, which reduced wastage.

Officials say the five-year average per-hectare yield of sugarcane stood at around 58 tonnes during 2006-2010. But the yield gradually improved to over 62 tonnes in 2013-14 due to soil enrichment after the massive 2010 floods, the larger plantation of relatively new varieties, including SPSG-26 and Thatta-10, and wider adoption of the ring-pit method by some selected farm owners.

Under this method, multiple cane stalks are planted in a pit and many such pits are dug out in each of the several long plant beds. This effectively means farmers can grow more sugarcane plants in relatively smaller areas of land and get higher per-hectare yields.

Sindh agriculture department officials say unlike in the past, many cane growers now have more than one cane variety to grow, depending upon the maturity period of the particular varieties. This has increased the per-hectare yield as well and led to higher output of the sugarcane crop.

They say the high-yielding BF-12 variety of sugarcane had completed trial cultivation in 2013 and growers began using it in 2014. This also boosted the crop’s production in some districts of Sindh.

Cotton production in the province has been on the rise chiefly due to wider use of BT cotton seeds. Reports from cotton fields suggest that most growers in Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Nawabshah and Jamshoro regularly use BT cotton seeds.

Small wonder then that Sanghar alone has contributed 1.504m bales (till February 15) during this cotton season, up from 1.391m bales in the year-ago period, even though growers in the district had missed the sowing target by 6pc, officials say.

They add that wider use of BT cotton and adequate and timely spray of pesticides on cotton fields during 2014 resulted in better protection against the deadly cotton curl leaf virus and other diseases, and resulted in higher output. Besides, there was slightly better availability of water than before, and farmers, on their part, also economised per-hectare water consumption through the use of rotary head sprinklers.

Officials say per-hectare yield of cotton in Sindh has gradually risen past 1,000kg per hectare from the five-year average of 836kg recorded during 2006-2010.

Growers and officials say the wheat output in the province has been rising slowly but steadily mainly because of the higher yields offered by seed varieties introduced over the last few years, including NIA Amber-2010, NIA Sunehri-2010, NIA Sunder-2011, Benazir-2012 and Hammal.

Besides, growers are better managing their crop calendars, as they plant the wheat crop in a timely manner in areas where cotton, rice and sugarcane are harvested a bit earlier. This allows the wheat crop enough time to mature.

In addition to this, growing use of solar-powered tube-wells has mitigated water woes to some extent. And the rising trend of sharing hired tractors and levelers for preparing land among community members or within a certain area makes crop cultivation easier.

The availability of certified seeds and genuine pesticides and insecticides still remains an issue but large wheat growers manage to overcome them, which helps them get better per-hectare yield.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, March 9th, 2015

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