Non-implementation of recommendations made by the international and national scientists at the conclusion of various seminars on agriculture and related issues has resulted in shrinkage of agriculture sector’s share in the national GDP to 22 per cent from 65 per cent in 1960. The maximum crop yields ever obtained in the history of the country were still far below their demonstrated achievable potential as shown in Table 1.
Similarly, one more international symposium on ‘Sustainable crop improvement and integrated management’ is being held from September 14-16, 2006 at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, where foreign and local scientists will present their papers on the subject.
The table shows that the maximum yields of important major and minor crops obtained in the country’s history were still below their achievable demonstrated potential at the farmer fields. Also the average yields of most the crops are showing decreasing trends indicating non-sustainability of agricultural production.
In spite of having the largest canal irrigation system in the world, our average wheat yield ranked 9th in the world during 2006, rice (paddy) 14th, sugarcane 14th, seed-cotton 11th, maize 18th.
Consequently, the country imported wheat for 50 years of its history and is virtually importing edible, pulses, meat, milk and milk products every year, while importing sugar, cotton (lint), maize during most of the years.
Integrated crop management: The various aspects of integrated crop management for obtaining sustainable crop production are high-yielding and disease-resistant varieties; use of quality seed; balanced application of chemical fertilisers and organic manure; use of effective pesticides and weedicides; timely availability of irrigation water; agricultural credit and farmers friendly marketing system etc.
However due to development of a number of high-yielding varieties of different crops, their genetic diversity has declined and posing problems to plant breeders to develop new varieties. The use of quality seed has the potential of increasing crop yields up to 20 per cent.
Although the quality seed distribution of wheat, paddy, maize, cotton, gram and oilseeds increased from 107,000 tons in 1996-97 to 218,000 tons in 2004-05, it was hardly enough to meet 26 per cent of their total requirements of these crops. The rest was mostly uncertified seed used by farmers thus adversely affecting the yield of these crops.
Similarly, other inputs being constant, balanced application of chemical fertilisers and organic manure has the potential of increasing yields from 25-75 per cent depending upon the crop and soil conditions.
Although NPK consumption in the country increased from 1,720,000 nutrient tons in 1987-88 to 3,693,000 nutrient tons in 2004-05, which comes to 52.6 kg per cropped acre indicating inefficient fertiliser application. Their highly increasing cost, often not their timely availability, adulteration and withdrawal of subsidy on fertiliser are among the major constraints for fertiliser use.
Likewise the current organic matter in the soil is below 0.1 per cent l thus negatively affecting the physical, chemical and biological conditions of the soil. The inadequate use of not properly prepared traditional farm yard manure is not as effective.
Insects, diseases, weeds and vertebrate pests cause pre- and post-harvest heavy losses. The pesticide consumption has increased from 43,219 to 129,862 nutrient tons during the decade ending in 2004-05. But it could be used on only 21 per cent of the total cropped area and about 80 per cent of it was used on cotton alone reflecting on poor plant protection measures.
The major constraints in its use are lack of quality control, increase in their adulteration, high cost, lack of knowledge in their proper use by the farmers and use of faulty spray equipment. The situation is further compounded by declining land and water resources.
Again, though credit given by various institutions increased from Rs2.122 billion in 1995-96 to Rs108.747 billion in 2004-05, most of it went to the influential feudal lords and politicians rather than to the small peasants, subsistent and below subsistent farmers who cultivate 95 per cent of all crops in the country.
Continued fragmentation of farm land is further decreasing the farm size and its production potential. Similarly the existing marketing system is not farmer-friendly due to inept policies of agricultural managers.
Unlike India we separated our agricultural education, research and extension system resulting in weak linkages between them due to their political rivalries and their consequent poor linkages with the farmers, especially the small farmers. These are some of the major reasons for non-sustainability of agricultural production.
Unfortunately, the country could also not sustain the green revolution in wheat and rice production due to the introduction of Mexican wheat and Irri - rice varieties in mid- sixties.
The agricultural policy-makers should realise that the green revolution model which requires high inputs and expensive technology could no more lead to sustainable betterment of small and resource-poor farmers of the developing world and also has failed to reduce poverty in the third world.
Therefore, the use of conservation agriculture is now being adopted on over 100 million hectares in over 50 countries in the world including China and those in South East Asia. It is becoming a great success story in Latin America. The FAO has also accepted this farming concept as one of their major activities and is helping to expand it this programme to Africa, Central Asia and South East Asia.
The key features of conservation agriculture are: no ploughing, disking or soil cultivation; it provides a method of soil moisture conservation and saving irrigation water; ensures there is less run-off of valuable water and increases water infiltration as compared to traditional methods; crop and cover crop residue stay on surface.
Crop rotations and cover crops are used to maximise biological control; no burning of crop residues; permanent crop and weed residue mulch protects soil erosion; helps to restore soil organic matter; increases soil microbes that are helpful in biological control of soil born pathogens; increases yields due to timely planting, favourable effects on soil structure, water and biological factors; decreases energy and labour costs for the farmers resulting in higher profits; specialised equipment is used; and enables continuous crop land use.
These are just some of the features of conservation agriculture according to the site specific requirements and socio-economic conditions of the farmers. Some of the conservation tillage techniques followed in other countries practicable under the conditions obtaining in Pakistan are surface seeding; bed-planting system; rice planting systems such as direct seeding and Chinese parachute rice planting technology; reduced tillage technology with two wheel Chinese tractor; zero tillage with four wheel tractors; happy seeder technology; plastic covering technique; use of hydro-ramp turbines etc.
The other important conservation technologies that can be very effectively followed in Pakistan are drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, low energy precision application and modern rain water techniques including roof top water harvesting.
By adopting the modern rain water harvesting technology we can increase our very low rain-fed crop yields nearly equal to those of irrigated crops as is being successfully done in several countries of the world.
The policy-makers should seriously think of adopting conservation agriculture in Pakistan with FAO assistance for sustainable agricultural production to meet the food and fibre requirements of our burgeoning population.