FAO expands tunnel farming, drip-irrigation system to merged tribal districts
Image Credits: Daily times
PESHAWAR, Feb 04 (APP): The Food and Agricultural Organization has introduced high tunnel-farming with drip-irrigation systems in newly merged tribal districts to promote off-season crop production through agro-technology in the wide-range climate of the region.
The initiative has been taken under “Restoring Subsistence and Commercial Agriculture in tribal areas” supported by the United States Agency for International Development. One hundred high tunnels have been installed in districts of Khyber, Orakzai, North and South Waziristan, twenty each. These tunnels will be supplemented with a drip irrigation system, a method of controlled irrigation with which water is slowly delivered to plants, resulting in efficient use of water and fertilizer.
Drip irrigation saves 40% water with 90% efficiency level as compared to 40 – 50 % efficiency level achieved through conventional irrigation methods. Drip system is capable of applying fertilizer and pesticides that increases efficiency level and decreases labor costs. As part of promoting off-season vegetable production, FAO arranges extensive off and on-job training and exposure visits for the farmers who are less or no familiar with tunnel farming methods for commercial agriculture.
“It is very crucial to provide technical training to the farmers in these areas as there is very little technical assistance and extension work available on tunnel-farming for growing vegetable crops in targeted areas.” Says Rustam Khan, an expert agriculturist from FAO.
He said: “Major weaknesses catered through training sessions for tunnel farming are selection of seed variety, land preparation, seed-bed preparation, mulching methods, row-row and plant-plant distance according to crop and seed variety. The beneficiaries are also trained on pruning, thinning, plants training (netting & ropes), fertilizer application according to crop growth stages, IPM, disease management, temperature and humidity control, irrigation scheduling , ideal fruit setting, fruit and flowers thinning and post-harvest handling of produce etc.”
High tunnels will enable off-season and high value vegetable crops production during the winter months while the same structure is capable of producing high-value crops during summer and autumn months. The technology will enable farmers in the target areas to increase off-season vegetables production. The familiarization with modern technology targets capacity-building and increased profitability from commercial agriculture activities.
The farmers are also provided with the certified quality seeds and trained on low-tech procedures of growing high-quality food to reap more profits. FAO continues familiarizing farmers with agro-technology in tribal areas to boost the production aiming food security and agro-based livelihood opportunities. Walk-in tunnels help increase productivity reducing the gap between current and potential production of agro-food targeting promotion of traditional economy and restoration of livelihood in insurgency-affected areas.
With the tunnel farming techniques, farmers in the Merged Districts of KP are evolving from subsistence to commercial agriculture. The growing practice is promoting farmers learning in agriculture development, climate security, creating socioeconomic resilience and improving market services on a sustainable basis.
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