Daily Times

LAHORE: More than 200 farmers were imparted training on latest techniques of rice cultivation at a capacity building workshop conducted by the Rice Partners Limited (RPL) in collaboration with the Intercooperation -a non-governmental organisation – and the Mars Food in rural areas of Sheikhupura.

Experts from the Pakistan Agricultural and Research Council (PARC) shed light on problems confronting farmer during rice cultivation.

Addressing the participants, RPL (WAPRO) Project Manager Zafar Iqbal said that this was the right time to support poor rice farmers to reduce their cost of production and increase per-acre yield by adopting latest techniques.

He briefed farmers about water scarcity in the country and the role of WAPRO in this regard. He explained in detail the outline and benefits of the WAPRO project for farmer communities.

Project Agronomist Imran Sheikh told farmers about the methods of incorporation of crop residues in soil rather than burning.

He briefed the farmers about the percentage of nutrients in potash, organic matter and nitrogen in crop residues, which are much needed for soil fertility and water retention capacity of the soil.

Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP)’s standards were also briefly discussed in all the four training session of the workshop. Farmers were motivated to grow rice crop as per SRP principles.

Moreover, gender empowerment was also discussed in the sessions while farmers were also urged to follow safety instructions during pesticides application on crops.