South Asia and Australia Table of Contents

Selected Pakistan Crops

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General Information
The major crops grown in Pakistan are wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane, cotton, pulses (gram, mash,mung, lentils, etc.), millets, barley, oats, onions, potatoes, tobacco, oilseeds viz. canola rapeseedand mustard, soybean, sesamum, groundnut etc. In addition, horticultural crops including almost allthe fruits and vegetables are grown. -Agricultural Attache Report, 1998

Pakistan Rice .
...Pakistan has certain unusual advantages for efficient rice productionbecause of long, hot and cloud free sunny days throughout the growing season,little or no rainfall but abundant water supplies from surface and sub-surface irrigation and levelled heavy soils well adopted to rice production of good qualities of rice. The dry hot weather limits losses from the plant diseases and insect problems that so seriously effect in other areas...- Deputy Assistant Director (Agri & Food), Pakistan Standards Institution, Karachi

Rice growers alerted about pest attack..........LAHORE (October 2) : Rice Crop Working Group for Punjab has urged farmers to remain vigilant as there was a danger of white backed hopper attack on the rice crop...........This warning was given at a meeting of the group presided by the Parliamentary Secretary on Agriculture, Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar. Director Pest Warning stated in the meeting that some hot spots of the white backed plant hopper were observed in tehsil Pasroor of Sialkot district, and in the prevalent weather the pest could also flare up in other rice growing areas. ..........It was also reported that diseases like brown leaf spot and bacterial blight were infecting rice crop in Sheikhupura area. If the affected crop was sprayed by a copper containing fungicide, the brown leaf spot disease could be completely controlled, while the bacterial blight could be checked from spreading further.

Pakistan Wheat

sometimes referred as winter wheat. more due to time of year than varietal reference.

LAHORE (October 11 '98) : The Punjab Seed Corporation has started distribution of wheat-seed amongst the farmers and arrangement to supply 1,743,000 maunds of seed in the province have been finalised, sources said here on Saturday. ..........The Corporation has started distribution of wheat-seed for cultivation in Barani and Thal areas while its cultivation in irrigated and plain areas ..........would be started following harvesting of sugarcane, cotton and paddy crops, sources added. ..........According to the arrangement, six kinds of seed including Inqlab-91, Shahkaar-95, Chakwal-85, Punjab-96 and Parwaz-94 will be supplied during the current year.

Pakistan Corn

Pakistan Cotton

irrigated cotton accounts for 99.9% of cotton grown. -Islamabad Post.

...Every year the road gets narrower and narrower. As the villagers are seeding the fields they chisel away an inch from either side so they can make their plots that much bigger" 90% of the landowners ahve plots less than 25 acres, and a third less than 5 acres. ... Omer grow cotton on 30 of his 60 acres and rents out the rest for 8,000 rupees ($200 US) an acre a year to four or five families who live in the village. ... ancestral lands have been divided into smaller and smaller areas through inheritance. ... the first year he lease five acres on which he grew cotton; at the end of the season he had made one lakh of rupees ($2,500 US) - the biggest profit margin in the village.... - National Geographic, October 1997:

...Academically, new cotton season commences from September 1, every year but practically, harvesting of new crop starts sometime in end June and generally in July from early sown area of lower Sindh. By this time, sowing is hardly completed in some areas of Northern Punjab and operation of gins continue in outgoing crop. ..........Cotton activities can be witnessed practically throughout the year. Cotton crop in lower Sindh at maturing stage while in middle and upper Sindh at different stages from squaring to boll-formation. In Punjab, harvesting of early maturing variety Karishma has already commenced in some areas while in most of the areas, the crop is from flowing stage to boll-formation maturing stage.... - Business Recorder, AZIZ SHAH

Pakistan Sugarcane

Sugar Cane 2 year growing season

Plan for canola inter-cropping
RECORDER REPORT
..........LAHORE (May 7) : Pakistan Oilseed Development Board has planned inter-cropping of canola and sugarcane in the coming sowing season. ..........According to official sources an experiment has been undertaken by the PODB at Mardan which has brought good results, supporting the idea of inter-cropping of Canola and sugarcane. ..........Initially five acres land of was utilised for the canola inter-cropping by the local growers with an ample support of the PODB. Yield was good and beyond our expectations, sources claimed. ..........Sources said that they have planned to sow 5,000 acres of land for the inter cropping in the coming season. This would be increased by 50,000 acres of land in the coming year. ..........Currently sugarcane is being sown at 25 million acres of land across the country. Only the September harvest suits the inter-cropping and we will have fifty percent of the overall sugarcane growing area for canola sowing. The growers will have no additional burden except the seed price to sow Canola along with the Sugarcane...........The inter-cropping will not only increase the average yield capacity of the soil but also save the sugarcane from frost injury, sources claimed. ..........It is pertinent to mention that the canola crash programme, launched by the PODB to multiply the indigenous canola crop has literally crashed because of the adverse weather conditions. Off season rain undermined the possibility of canola sowing in the country and subsequently the under-cultivation area for the canola was decreased considerably. Moreover, rains also delayed the harvesting of rice crop which also adversely affected the canola sowing in the rice growing areas. "We will able to have a breakthrough," the officials at the PODB claimed. ..........Copyright 1998 Business Recorder (www.brecorder.com)

Pakistan Sunflower
Experts advise sunflower sowing in August for maximum yield ..........FAISALABAD (August 3 1998) : The edible oil seed experts at Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) Faisalabad have advised sunflower growers to complete sowing of the crop between August, 10-31 to get maximum yield. ..........The varieties recommended for the autumn sowing are: Suncom 90, Suncom-110, NK-265, NK-208, IS-3312, IS-897, IS-3107, Highsun-33 and SF-107. ..........Sunflower, one of the major non-traditional crop in Pakistan, promises good
share in the edible oil consumption with its area under crop 150,000 acres few years ago and an average yield of 20 maund per acre. .........."The major reason for stagnation in the share of sunflower in the edible oilseed crop is the reluctance of the farmer to sow this crop in between two major crops. The provision of costly seed by the multinational companies is another cause of the less under crop area", said an oilseed expert. ..........The multinationals like Cargil, Lever Brothers and ICI are contributing 90 percent of the total sunflower seed demand in the country.--APP ..........( Associated Press of Pakistan)

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Last modified: Saturday, March 16, 2013