Pesticide Action Network (PAN) feature

Sheikhupura: A seminar on the future of Local Rice Varieties was held at the Adaptive Research Farm, Sheikhupura, with the collaboration of the Directorate of Adaptive Research.

The event held in conjunction with the Week of Rice Action (WORA) from 29th March to 4th April 2007 drew farmers from many areas who participated in the 1-day seminar. The main idea was to involve this Governmental institution in research on ecological farming systems and local Rice varieties. The Directorate is mainly responsible to transfer the technologies to the farmers.

Dr. Shahid Zia while explaining the objectives of the seminar said that introduction of the Green Revolution and High Yielding Varieties (HYVs) brought serious changes in the cropping patterns and agriculture in general. Special campaigns were launched by Government Departments for the diffusion of HYVs. Farmers adopted those varieties and gained bumper crops for a few years but after that the yields fell down even lower than the local varieties because of many problems with the HYVs. These varieties were actually not suited to the prevailing environment and they had very minimum level of immunity against the severe circumstances like drought and pest and disease attack.

To overcome this situation, farmers were taught to use fertilizers and pesticides. As a result, cost of production rose from 1345 Rs./acre in 1985 to 13000 Rs./acre in 2005 with almost the same yield.

“During this period we suffered a loss in the diversity of crop and the varieties as the system encouraged mono-cropping patterns. The farmers of Sheikhupura had more than 4000 rice varieties in their hands and now they are have only five varieties to cultivate� he said.

He added that the modern agriculture did not only tend to increase the cost of production but also limited the choices for the farmers. He said that the International Rice Research Institute had played a negative role in this process together with some Rice Research Institutes in Pakistan and other countries of Asia.

“Now they are talking about GE Rice which is a real threat to Pakistan and other Rice cultivating countries. But the farmers of Asia has recognized these things and are celebrating the Week of Rice Action to save the Rice of Asia, which is the main staple food of more than three billion people of Asia.

We strongly demand that our Governmental institutions should work in the interests of the farmers and research on our local varieties should be started to make them better for the future.�

Dr. Anjum Ali, Director of Adaptive Research said that the Directorate had nine Research farms in the different climatic zones of Punjab province, researching on different farming systems and technologies to be transferred to the farmers.

He said the Directorate was concerned about the increasing cost of production and was working on the low cost sustainable technologies so that the farmers may get more income. Currently, some Adaptive Research Farms are working on Integrated Pest Management to cut down the use of pesticides and “we are ready to initiate research on ecological farming systems and local varieties with the collaboration of Lok Sanjh, the local organization, and the farmers. The Director has allocated three acres of land at the Sheikhupura Adaptive Research Farm for this initiative.�

Farmers attending the seminar raised some questions on the impacts of the Green Revolution and supported the idea of research on ecological farming systems and local Rice Varieties with the involvement of the farmers. Some farmers also offered their lands for research purposes. It was decided that five farmer’s plots would be selected from different areas to initiate research and a main plot sited at the Adaptive Research Farm.