Water shortage during the early part of the Kharif season has risen to an alarming 45 percent from initial projections of 32 percent against average uses.
LAHORE: Due to chronic water shortage of 45 percent, Punjab has been compelled to dissuade farmers from the planting of sugarcane and other water-intensive crops.
This was revealed by officials on Monday and sugarcane crop compared to cotton requires two times more water for growing, reported The News.
The official added farmers were being advised to plant those crops which consumed less water in ongoing Kharif season.
And farmers in South Punjab have been directed to not plant sugarcane this year and whilst its cultivation was being dissuaded in rest of the provinces due to water shortage problems.
The official shared cultivable area under sugarcane could be decreased due to the country possessing surplus stocks of sugar.
He counselled the farmers to consider growing cotton in South Punjab as it consumes less amount of water.
And water scarcity has grown in the ongoing Kharif season, as the shortage during the early part of the season has risen to an alarming 45 percent from initial projections of 32 percent against average uses.
The irrigation official stated because of low river flows, water was being utilized from Mangla Dam for augmenting the fall in River Jhelum flow, whilst Tarbela Dam was about to hit dead level.
He added there was an effort to ensure prudent use of water from Mangla Dam for securing minimum supplies at Tarimmu Head and Panjnad Barrage since there wasn’t any additional water available from Indus Zone.

Drought Delays Sugar Cane Sowing Time in Cuban Province.
The sowing time for sugar cane in Cuba’s province of Santa Clara has been drastically delayed due to the drought which has affected the island’s agricultural sector since 2015.
Farmers are unable to irrigate the soil destined for the crop, causing the delay according to the Cuban News Agency.
Andres Duran Fundora, director of Sugar Group AZCUBA, the state-owned entity dedicated to the agricultural production of sugar and its derivatives, told reporters that low water reserves in Santa Clara have hampered agricultural production.
Norbelio Machado, Sugar Group AZCUBA’s representative in Villa Clara, noted that the drought had already foiled the sowing plan for the first semester’s harvest.
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seek to previous 12… 6 seek to 10%, 20% … 60% pause-sharp-outline pause-sharp-fill pause-rounded-outline pause-rounded-fill 0:00 0:00 Located in the province’s northern region, Villa Clara has been one of the areas hardest hit by the two-year-long drought, with water scarcity causing severe problems in the agriculture sector.
To compensate, agriculturalists have been working overtime in other provincial areas which have received recent rain.
Machado said that sowing on a wide base, an agricultural technique that covers over 10,800 hectares, can help farmers survive the drought.
He argued, “climate change is causing that, mainly in the region of the Caribbean.”

Sirsa (Haryana), July 3: The National Highway 9 (NH-10 by old numbering), which connects Delhi to the border town of Fazilka in Punjab, has a lesser-known distinction.
The 403-kilometre-long carriageway, which cuts through four major districts of Haryana — namely, Rohtak, Hisar, Fatehabad and Sirsa — bifurcates the region broadly into two in terms of agricultural practices.
Record cotton sowing The region, known as the cotton belt of Haryana, has assumed significance this year, as there has been a record sowing of cotton, on 6.3 lakh hectares, which is over a quarter more than the 5 lakh ha in the corresponding period last year.
“Farmers in the region were left with limited choice as many areas suffer from water scarcity and hence were not suitable for paddy,” says Chandrabhan, who grows cotton in Buthan Kalan village of Fatehabad district.
While prices of seeds and inputs have gone up significantly, the price that a farmer gets has either stayed at what it was some 15 years ago or come down.
For instance, he says, a quintal of cotton was priced around ₹5,500 in 2001, the best price available to a farmer last year was ₹5,000 per quintal.
High costs Even at a price of ₹ 5,000 per quintal, a tenant farmer sustains losses, he argues.
The best yield of 8 quintal per acre gets him only ₹40,000.
“I wanted to go for it as Bt cotton growing was affecting the productivity of the wheat crop I grow following the cotton harvest,” he says.
The country-wide kharif crop sowing data released by the Agriculture Ministry on June 30 actually shows that of a total area of 6.3 lakh ha under cotton cultivation, less than 1 per cent is growing non-Bt cotton.

In Zimbabwe, benefits of forgotten farming method realized during drought.
Better yet, the land is producing a crop even as southern Africa’s droughts grow stronger and more frequent, a problem linked to climate change.
That’s because Mr. Chiweshe is no longer plowing a portion of his farm, but instead planting his seeds directly into the intact soil, a water-conserving technique called “no-till” farming.
Besides planting seeds directly into the soil, no-till farming involves allowing the stalks and leaves left from earlier harvests to remain on the ground, to help hold moisture and eventually add nutrients to the soil, building soil fertility over time.
In some areas where soils are sandy, farmers practicing no-till farming saw yields no higher than those of farmers who plowed their land.
Before taking up no-till farming, he said he harvested just one tonne of maize from his 3-hectare plot last year, during the drought.
This year he expects twice that from just one-sixth of his land.
In Malawi, no-till farmers find they need to spend fewer days each year planting and weeding their fields – though they may need to buy and use herbicides to get rid of weeds without tilling the land, Thierfelder said.
Some farmers say eliminating tilling also has allowed them to plant more crops side-by-side in the same field.
Under a 2011 government plan to promote the practice, each of the country’s 4,300 farm extension officers was expected to train at least 75 farmers a year, said Phillimon Ngirazi, an extension officer from Chavakadzi in Shamva District, about 75 miles northwest of Harare.

Faced with more drought, Zimbabwe’s farmers hang up their plows.
MUREHWA, Zimbabwe (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Preparing his three-hectare plot of land for planting each year used to take Musafare Chiweshe – or the laborers he hired – two weeks.
Better yet, the land is producing a crop even as southern Africa’s droughts grow stronger and more frequent, a problem linked to climate change.
No-till farming is hardly new.
Besides planting seeds directly into the soil, no-till farming involves allowing the stalks and leaves left from earlier harvests to remain on the ground, to help hold moisture and eventually add nutrients to the soil, building soil fertility over time.
In some areas where soils are sandy, farmers practicing no-till farming saw yields no higher than those of farmers who plowed their land.
Before taking up no-till farming, he said he harvested just one ton of maize from his 3-hectare plot last year, during the drought.
This year he expects twice that from just one-sixth of his land.
In Malawi, no-till farmers find they need to spend fewer days each year planting and weeding their fields – though they may need to buy and use herbicides to get rid of weeds without tilling the land, Thierfelder said.
Under a 2011 government plan to promote the practice, each of the country’s 4,300 farm extension officers was expected to train at least 75 farmers a year, said Phillimon Ngirazi, an extension officer from Chavakadzi in Shamva District, 120 km northwest of Harare.

Drought conditions affecting planting season.
The late winter and early spring months of 2017 brought weather less than ideal for planting.
South Alabama Planting Update Alabama Extension crops specialist William Birdsong said rain is needed to really kick off the planting season in the Wiregrass.
“Dry soil conditions have hindered planting here as well,” Birdsong said.
“The planted corn looks very good and farmers are spraying to control weeds.
Producers are also making fertilizer applications.” Most of the corn in the Wiregrass area has irrigation, and farmers have already begun watering.
Farmers are hopeful this year, but getting a spring planting rain is critical to the beginning of this crop season.
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Ways to encourage ‘refuge’ planting, slow resistance to Bt crops.
However, insect pests have shown the ability to evolve resistance to Bt proteins.
In fact, in the case of Bt corn, farmers are required to plant a section of their fields with refuge crops.
That’s because refuge crops provide fodder for insect pests that are not resistant to Bt proteins.
Some growers plant too little of their fields with Bt crops, and some don’t plant refuge crops at all.
Reisig divides his time between conducting research and helping farmers deal with problems related to insect crop pests.
What can influence whether growers plant refuge crops?
Reisig also found that there was a high correlation between how much land was devoted to corn, cotton and soybeans in a county, and how likely farmers in that county were to plant refuge crops.
Reisig also found that better enforcement and peer pressure from other farmers weren’t seen as making farmers more likely to plant refuge crops.
Journal Reference: Dominic D. Reisig.

Planting peas and other legumes alongside cereal crops could help make farming greener, say ecologists.
Intercropping, as it’s known, could cut greenhouse gas emissions by reducing dependence on fertiliser, as well as boosting biodiversity, food security and opening up new markets for local food and drinks businesses.
This includes producing impressive crop yields without artificial nitrogen fertiliser — and inventing new ways of brewing and distilling with beans.
This is because peas and other legumes fix their own nitrogen.
And when grown with other crops such as barley, the peas supply the cereal’s nitrogen needs.
Farming also needs to diversify by growing a wider range of crops and develop new markets for local, sustainable food and drinks.
To find new markets for a larger legume crop, Dr Iannetta is also developing new ways of turning peas and beans into alcohol.
By turning pulse starch into fermentable sugars and alcohol from 40% beans intercropped with 60% barley — we have produced a beer using 40% less artificial fertiliser," says Dr Iannetta.
The final benefit of their fermentation process is that it also produces a high-protein by-product, which could be used to make fish farming more sustainable.
"These will have been produced using no human-made fertilisers, and give co-products that provide sustainable and profitable protein production for the food chain," he concludes.