Agricultural productivity in the country has stagnated for want of optimum technology applications. Most commentators tend to blame the academia and the research community for this. Admittedly, there are several research gaps but even more pronounced is a lack of skill, innovation and adoption. There are many ways to look at the challenge land and water development farm machinery and precision seed and agro-chemicals farm services and credit processing and value addition markets and agribusiness rural-urban transition and public policy and governance etc.
Machine operations require economies of scale, which are often beyond the means of most small farmers. Absorption of scale-neutral technology seed, fertilizer, animal feed, and chemicals has made a significant impact on the production and productivity of crops and livestock. Yet, there is much more to be desired than is being done. We have failed to keep pace with the emerging applications. Seed replacement for wheat has been very slow around 20 percent a year it should be at least 50 percent. The balanced use of fertilizers is totally missing. Nitrogen is the major fertilizer being used whereas our soils are deficient in several nutrients.
The application of farm chemicals is often imprecise and timing of operations is not given due attention. The nexus between land distribution and technological transformation in the canal colonies 1880s onwards makes for an interesting study. The land development followed gravity-driven irrigation water flows from rivers. Back then, the relationship between average land holding and water allocation supply controlled wara bandi minutes per acre distribution of time slots was efficient for a cropping intensity of 60 percent. Now, with land fragmentation over nearly six generations and a cropping intensity of 200 percent, the irrigation system struggles to be optimum. The water deficit is being met by excessive and expensive groundwater pumping. A shift to high efficiency irrigation requires energy, pipes and on-farm water storage structures, which are beyond the reach of a majority of farmers. A complete system reform is required to convert supply of canal irrigation to a demand-driven water delivery. With increasing urbanization, there will soon be greater competition for water allocation and pricing mechanisms to the disadvantage of agriculture. Farm practices have to be made water-efficient to bear the cost of water volumes and delivery systems. The current investment in HEI needs to be revisited to make it compatible with the ground realities rather than allowing elite capture. Animal draft power has nearly vanished and tractors are the standard farm horsepower. The tractors currently account for nearly half the required horsepower. The tractors are currently equipped with very few implements and are insufficient to meet the modern mechanization requirements ploughing, tillage, planting, spreading, and spraying, harvesting, drying, grading, transportation.
The future lies with the next generation of mechanization the use of precision agriculture equipment and application of data science and drones. There is a strong case for the provision of comprehensive rental services to replace the current tractorisation. High efficiency irrigation requires energy, pipes and on-farm water storage structures, which are beyond the reach of a majority. A complete system reform is required to convert canal supply irrigation to a demand-driven delivery of water. Sir William Roberts, the principal of erstwhile Punjab Agriculture College and Research Institute, Lyallpur Faisalabad wrote a paper in 1925 to highlight the need to create a seed industry in the country, long before the Green Revolution of 1960s. By then the use of hybrid corn seed was already in practice elsewhere. He abandoned academics and created Roberts Seed and Ginning business in Khanewal and Rahim Yar Khan.
Original Link: https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/1016386-technology-gap-in-agriculture