Daily Times

BEIJING: To solve the current problems of rice production in Pakistan, new varieties can be introduced from China for trial planting.

Pakistan can also introduce China’s advanced agricultural machinery and planting technology suitable for small farmers to help them increase rice production, said Xu Jianlong, chief scientist of rice molecular design technology in the Institute of Crop Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

There is a popular saying that farming accounts for roughly 70 percent of human water consumption, and water used in rice fields account for 70 percent of the entire agricultural water consumption, he said in an interview.

Drought-resistant varieties in China can save about 30 percent of water. Under drought conditions, drought-resistant varieties can also grow normally and avoid yield losses, he added.

Pakistan is also a country seriously affected by land salinization. About 30 percent of Pakistan’s planting areas are affected by salinization. Just as drought-resistant varieties are required due to the water resources shortage, salt-resistant varieties are also needed to make full use of saline lands.Xu Jianlong noted that several salt-resistant varieties have been approved and promoted in China and got good production.

In Tianjin, China, there is rice called Xiaozhan rice, which is very delicious. Xu Jianlong told us that rice grown in saline soil tastes better than the same variety grown in ordinary soil, China Economic Net (CEN) reported.

He said, it is salt tolerant and planted in a slightly saline environment, and its irrigation water also contains a certain amount of salt. The minerals contained in the salt contribute to the slow but sufficient accumulation of starch in rice, so the taste is better.

Pakistan is a big rice-growing country, and its paddy area reached 3.3 million hectares in the year 2021. However, problems such as drought and salinization have made large arable land vacant, which has greatly affected its total rice production.

In Pakistan, only 22 to 23 percent of the land is cultivated. There are vest uncultivated lands because of water depletion, according to Shamsul Islam Khan, vice president of Karachi Chamber of Commerce.