Wheat: ‘Bed planters can increase production’

Farmers can increase wheat production by 25%, and reduce water use by 50% by adopting bed planting.

FAISALABAD: “Farmers can increase wheat production by 25 per cent, and reduce water use by 50 per cent by adopting bed planting,” University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF) Vice Chancellor Iqrar Ahmad Khan said on Thursday. Addressing a ceremony at UAF, Khan said the Water Management Research Centre in collaboration with USDA had distributed six bed planters among the farmers to promote the technology. Khan said it was important that water saving technologies were adopted. He said more than half of the farmers in the Punjab were using tube wells for irrigation. “They can make their farms more cost effective and increase profits by adopting bed planting,” he said. Water Management Research Centre (WMRC) Director Allah Bukhsh said bed plantation saved energy and labour.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2013.