ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The top US and Pakistani experts in water and agriculture got together here Wednesday to demonstrate to the farmers the best practices in watershed rehabilitation and help them store water for cutting its losses as it has become a scarce resource.
They have been working together under a four-year project worth $3.3 million undertaken by the US in 2011 to help Pakistan utilize water more efficiently. They met again at a two-day annual project meeting Tuesday to discuss the subject, said a statement of the US Embassy here.
“By combining some old and new technologies, Pakistan’s farmers can lead the way to wise water use at home and on farmland,” said USDA National Conservation Technology Specialist Cheryl Simmons.
The project is to strengthen the capacity of Pakistani agricultural institutions to show farmers ways to better capture and store water, reduce the loss of water or soil, and more efficiently water crops.
Their two-day meeting highlighted technologies and practices such as solar-powered drip irrigation, simple drip bucket irrigation, planting on raised beds and ridges, and on-farm water storage methods.
The gathering also focused on innovative ways to share these practices with farmers, such as short instructional videos, farmer field days, and professional trainings.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has partnered with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and 11 Pakistani institutions on a project to demonstrate and disseminate best practices and technologies in watershed rehabilitation and irrigation improvement to help rural Pakistani farmers.
“The watershed and irrigation improvement project has created a lot of awareness among farmers, professionals, and policy makers about techniques for efficient water use,” commented Dr.
Abdul Majid, Country Manager for ICARDA in Pakistan. USDA and ICARDA work in partnership across the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with two provincial agricultural research institutes, three Pakistani universities, three institutes of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), a provincial agricultural extension department, the Pakistan Council of Research on Water Resources (PCRWR), and a Pakistani agricultural NGO. Through this project, technical experts from USDA visit Pakistan to provide trainings and technical consultations to Pakistani partners, who then conduct demonstration and dissemination activities with local farmers, said the statement.
Source: APP
