500 rice growers educated on water efficient techniques to ensure sustainable rive production      

ISLAMABAD: As many as 500 rice growers were educated in Sheikhupura at various training workshops on water efficient techniques in Water and Productivity Project (WAPRO) to ensure sustainable high yield per acre rice production.

The training workshops were conducted by Rice Partners Pvt. Ltd in collaboration with Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and MARS food in district Sheikhupura, says a statement received here Wednesday.

The farmers were trained in four sessions and the motive of these trainings was to improve the knowledge and skills of rice farmers on innovative resource efficient techniques of WAPRO for ensuring sustainable rice cultivation.

During the training sessions, the experts from private and public sector educated the farmers about the global updates and improvements in adoption rate of alternate techniques in rice farming.

They said that it was high time that all the rice growers should learn modern techniques to grow more with less input which would not only help generating more income for them but would also help increasing rice exports of the country.

The outline of WAPRO project and its importance in implementation of Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) was highlighted by Project Manager Zafar Iqbal while Project Agronomist Imran Sheikh advised the farmers that by avoidance of the burning of wheat crop residues, farmers can protect the environment improve their soil health inevitable for sustainable farming.

Social aspects like gender empowerment and girls’ education were meticulously highlighted by Samia Mubashar (Social Activist) and Waqas A Khan (Senior Trainer) respectively.    Iqra Inam (Plant Pathologist) underlined the importance of seed treatment for controlling seed and soil borne diseases in addition; she emphasized farmers about following crop calendar and adopting record keeping practice.

The importance of balance use of fertilizers was elucidated by Dr. Riaz Mann Senior Advisor RPL. Updates about initiatives taken by public sector at policy level were shared in detail by Member Plant Sciences Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) Dr. Anjum Ali Buttar.