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Innovations for Healthy Soils (June 29, 2021)
In 2010, the United States Department of Agriculture – Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS) funded experts from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to share technical expertise in watershed rehabilitation and soils conservation in Pakistan. Over a ten-year period (2010-2020) six major projects and a number of associated activities were initiated by USDA in Pakistan focused on water management, soil health and fertility to improve resilience to climate change.
USDA worked in close partnership with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and others in demonstration and dissemination of multiple technologies and best practices including, among others: Soil Health Testing Kits; Zero Till for Dryland Wheat and Wheat into Rice; Laser Land Leveling; Fertilizer Prediction Models for multiple crops; Micronutrient applications for peanut, wheat, vegetables and fruit orchards. Special attention was given to discussion of one particularly successful intervention:
- Solar-Powered Pumping Systems: The USDA-supported partnership engaged Pakistani farmers in adoption of innovative, high-efficiency irrigation systems powered by renewable energy. By linking high-efficiency irrigation systems with solar energy systems, the USDA-ICARDA project has helped farmers in Pakistan achieve higher water-use efficiency, energy efficiency, and cost-efficiency. Government support of the technology has been supported with subsidy of 20,000 solar drip irrigation systems by the Government of Punjab and interest free loans on 30,000 solar pumps by the federal Government of Pakistan.
A presentation from ICARDA focused on evaluation of technologies trialed in farmer fields as well as project efforts to increase adoption of selected technologies and practices by farmers through service provision by the trained agricultural service providers (ASPs).
Experts: The session was moderated by Jan Hopmans (UC Davis, USA). Panelists were Mohammad Aslam (Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology, Pakistan; Jon Fripp (USDA, USA); Michael Kucera (USDA, USA); and Abdul Majid (ICARDA, Pakistan). Invited experts were Henry Janzen (AAFC/AAC, Canada); Kate Scow (UC Davis, USA); Muhammad Sana Ullah (Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan) and Jay Norton (University of Wyoming, USA).