Organic formula to raise rice yield by 40%

Agricultural expert says new method helps save water

LAHORE:

Agricultural experts claim that through the use of an organic liquid formula, the rice yield per acre is likely to increase by 30% to 40%.

An expert , Syed Babar Ali Bukhari, told The Express Tribune that to increase the production per acre of rice in Pakistan and reduce the production cost, the Super Basmati variety has been cultivated in different districts of Punjab with the help of the organic liquid formula whose yield is noticeably more than that of a normally cultivated crop.

He said the use of the formula increases production by 30 to 40%. “The water requirement of the crop also drops to less than half,” said Bukhari.

He maintained that the formula developed by him is being used successfully in different crops.

"Hundreds of acres of rice crop has been cultivated in different parts of Sindh and Punjab by our experts through this non- traditional method,” he said.

He highlighted that traditionally, after plowing the field, it is watered and the land is prepared with the help of a tractor and then seedlings are cultivated in the water.

“But we have not done that this time. We watered the field with very little water and after that, when the soil softened, the field was plowed six-inch deep. Then the organic liquid is applied in the fields and after that seedlings are sown in the semi-dry soil that is later watered,” said the agricultural expert.

Agronomist Mohammad Rafique said the size, height and colour of the seedlings grown in this way in three weeks are much better than the normally grown seedlings.

“It doesn't even need much water,” he said.

However, he maintained that in Sindh, a lot of water is used for the cultivation of seedlings. Rafique says the organic formula has saved both fertiliser and water.

Agricultural experts claimed that the rice crop grown with the formula is protected from diseases and the size of rice is longer with added fragrance. It is also rare for the rice to break during processing, they said.

"We need to bring innovation in traditional farming methods and adopt new methods to increase our yield per acre," Rafique added.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2020.