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Goat Breeding Tips for Livestock Farmers (Urdu)
In order to get maximum meat and milk Beetal, Daira Deen Panah, Nachi, and Teddy Breeds.....
Mango Amazing Facts
The mango is known as the 'king of fruit' throughout the world. The name 'mango' is derived from the Tamil word 'mangkay' or 'man-gay'. When the Portuguese traders settled in Western India they adopted the name as 'manga'.
Pomegranate(Punica granatum) Cultivation and Farming
Pomegranates are fairly drought tolerant and can be grown on either calcareous or acid soils. Climate - Grow best in dry climates with mild winters. Chilling requirement
EU may also ban Monsanto GMO in wake of shocking cancer findings
Russia's consumer protection group, Rospotrebnadzor, said it was halting all imports of GM corn while the country's Institute of Nutrition will be evaluating the results of the study.
Protect Garden Pots during Winter
Many pots, especially ornamental containers that aren’t designed to stand outside in freezing temperatures, need winter protection. Wrap them up in burlap (possibly double layers), and secure tightly at the top and bottom with strong garden string.
Sustainable Agriculture and Fertilizers Practices in Pakistan
Agriculture is the mainstay of Pakistan’s economy. It has a total area of 79.61 million hectare, and the total area used for crop production is only 22 million ha.
Herbs For Winter Windowsill
Growing season is over, do you still find yourself ready to dash out to the garden for some chives, basil or a sprig of thyme...
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Tuesday, July 02, 2013
Strip-till systems can benefit corn
Justin Davey
Tillage practices are varied for farms today, depending on the farmer's vision for the land, but strip-till systems can benefit corn by combining many of the best aspects of no-till and conventional tillage systems, according to a report from DuPont Pioneer. The advantages of strip-till are generally most pronounced for corn following corn, where strip-till can help improve seedbed uniformity and reduce plant-to-plant variability compared to no-till.
The report continues to assert that strip-till provides benefits over conventional tillage practices in the areas of conservation and efficiency. "By leaving the interrow untilled, crop residues are retained on the soil surface providing increased erosion resistance and organic inputs," it says. Strip-till can also reduce field passes and input costs compared to conventional tillage.
Tips for successful strip-till
It's important to consider field selection, tillage timing, and strip placement when implementing strip till into your operation. According to the report, "Guidance systems and strip-till units with parallel linkage help ensure accurate seed placement and consistent depth control. It may take a season or two to become skilled at staying on the strips—so give it time and stick with it.
Source: http://www.agriculture.com
Sun-flower, corn and soyabean modern varieties for Farmer
July 03, 2013
Federal Minister for Food Security and Research Alhaj Sikandar Hayat Bosan has said that Pakistan is self-sufficient in food, cotton, sugar, however we have to spend precious foreign exchange of billions of rupees on the import of edible oil. We should evolve modern varieties of edible seeds of sun-flower, corn, soyabean, Jojoba, rapeseed, Cassamba etc to save Rs 200 billion. 
Federal Minister appreciated the role of international agencies, especially FAO, USDA, CIMMYT, ICARDA, ICIMOD and other donors for holding such events in Pakistan to share technical and scientific knowledge and experience by experts and financial support for development of agriculture sector in the country. He urged upon the progressive farmers, researchers and agricultural scientists to reduce the knowledge gap between researchers and enhancing the capacity of the extension workers; during the process, it will identify the most compelling findings from researchers' work, prepare a package, and then present and disseminate these findings in the form that would be accessible and understandable to farmers.
Source: http://www.brecorder.com
Promoting environmental-friendly agriculture practices
July 03, 2013
The international seminar titled Technology, Energy and Natural Resources was arranged by Department of Environmental Sciences, GC University Faisalabad that was presided over by Acting Vice Chancellor and Dean Faculty of Science and Technology Professor Dr Naureen Aziz Qureshi. The other speakers include Dr Qamar Zaman and Dr Tri Ngyuen Quang from Dalhousie University Canada, and Department Chairman Dr Farhat Abbas. Dr Schumann from University of Florida also addressed on video conference recorded talk.
Addressing on the occasion, Professor Dr Naureen Aziz said it was prerequisite to make efficient use of natural resources keeping in view the modern trend at par with the international standards by adopting latest techniques. She said glaciers were melting drastically due to climate changes and after 50 years, the country would be left with the few glaciers if the dilemma continued. "Keeping in view, we have to shift to drip irrigation from flood irrigation to save the water for the coming generation," she added. She said level of water use efficiency in Pakistan was only 40 percent while per capita water availability was only 1,000 cubic meter.
Source: http://www.brecorder.com
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Punjab to provide solar-powered tube-wells to farmers
June 23, 2013
Punjab government will provide bio-gas and solar-powered tube-wells to the small farmers of the province with a cost of Rs 7.5 billion. This was disclosed by Punjab Minister for Agriculture, Dr Farrukh Javed at a meeting held at the Agriculture House to review the project of distributing bio-gas and solar-powered tube wells on subsidy to the small growers of the province on Saturday. 
Source: http://www.brecorder.com
Thursday, June 20, 2013
KBP terms Sindh, Punjab budgets anti-farmer
June 20, 2013
Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) Central President, Sardar Zafar Hussain Khan reacting to provincial budgets announced by the Punjab and Sindh alleged that the provincial governments have totally neglected the farmers' community. He said that the Punjab government provided subsidy on electricity tariff for agricultural tube wells in the past which provided a much required relief to the growers but withdrawal of subsidy in new budget would multiply the hardships of the farmers.
Zafar claimed that all the countries across globe provide subsidy to farming sector for fetching desired positive results but it seemed rulers had taken the decision to strangulate agriculture in the country but not extending any kind of subsidy. He said there had been a need to introduce flat rates for agricultural tube wells on the pattern of Balochistan.
Source:http://www.brecorder.com
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Internship Seeker: Asif Aziz CV
ASIF AZIZ
Objective: To put my academic & creative ability to its full use, & pursue a career in its relevance. Personal Information
Academic Qualification
Professional Qualification
Courses Studied
Training Course Attended
Internship
Skills
Language Proficiency:
English and Urdu (Read, Write and Speak)
Reference:
Growing okra in coastal areas
By Engr Kamran Bukhsh Soomro
PARC, Southern Agriculture Research Center, University Campus, University Road Karachi Pakistan
OKRA, called Bhindi, is cultivated in tropical, sub-tropical and warm temperate regions. It can also be grown in the coastal areas of Pakistan.
The length of the country’s coast is about 1,100kms which ranges from Gwadar in Balochistan to Badin in Sindh. Malir and other adjacent districts of Karachi come under the coastal area.
Where there is shortage of water, drip irrigation system can be adopted. It is a system that applies water and fertilisers directly to the root zone of individual plant instead of irrigating the entire area with flood or sprinkler irrigation. The system comprises pipeline network as main, sub-main, lateral lines and emitters or tricklers which are fitted on laterals from which water is delivered to the plant at a low pressure.
Under proper management, drip irrigation system is capable of saving water, as only the plant’s root zone is supplied with water; under this system, the use of water is efficient with higher crop yield as compared to traditional irrigation method.
In the coastal areas, the groundwater is saline ranging from marginal to hazardous quality and can be used for cultivation of okra and other vegetables. The Coastal Agricultural Research Station of PARC has taken an initiative for using marginal quality irrigation water in comparison to good quality water under drip irrigation system.
The amount of water applied through drip system to okra crop was 6,989.7m3/ha. The crop yield and water use efficiency was 16.96t/ha and 2.43 kg/ respectively. Thus, it was concluded that okra crop can be grown successfully on a sandy loam soil using saline (marginal quality) ground water for irrigation.
Okra has a great potential in coastal areas. Growers should be made aware of the use of saline ground water for vegetable cultivation.
Controlled and on-spot irrigation through drip system seems the only appropriate method to grow and sustain horticultural activities in this region.
It shall not only provide the required water to the plant but will also resist salt built up in the root. Another possibility may be prevention of diseases particularly of fungal origin.
However, there is need for more research on the use of saline ground water for cultivation of winter and summer vegetable crops and fruit orchards in the coastal belts of Sindh and Balochistan under the drip irrigation system for the benefit of the people of these area.
Courtesy: The DAWN
Pakistan, Ukraine need to share experience in agriculture
June 19, 2013
Pakistan could make tremendous progress in agriculture by sharing and engaging in public-private sector dialogue on the subject with Ukraine. This was stated by Engr M A Jabbar, Honorary Consul of Ukranie in Karachi on his return on Monday night after participating in the annual business conference held in Kyiv, Ukranie from June 13-15. The official businessmen delegation led by Jabbar returned after enriching with the knowledge pertaining to the consideration of economic developments and allied features thereof in developing different segments of the economy in their own specific needs for affecting the overall growth and development supported by infrastructure and targeted subsidised measures.
Talking to Business Recorder, he said that the model could always provide inputs for considering structuring of developments of economic management in Pakistan. This benefit will help the delegates to prepare and fine tune their working as recommendations for the Ministry of Commerce and other ministries in considering the local trajectory of development which may be similar in most of the cases and may be amended for adoption due to increased sense and obligations of conducting the trade in the international trading rule on similar grounds providing very few exceptions including for Pakistan.
Ukraine, he said was preparing for free trade, customs union agreements which experiences together gave in sight of dismantling of barriers in the way of trade, harmonise the legislative work and adopt the legal courses of others so that the cohesion became the basis of generating level playing field for conducting trade and business in just & fair way to benefit bilateral, plulateral and multilateral trading amongst the signatory partners. Pakistan has similar situation to conduct the research on experiences of others for possible gainful adoptions in the interest of required economic developments.
Delegates of Pakistan, he said had the pleasure of the meeting the Prime Minister of Ukraine on the reception day and his imparting knowledge also provided a basis of better understanding of the Ukrainian approach for considering modifications in our own structural approaches for denting the flexibility to seek better way of considering recommendation of economic management required by the public sector of Pakistan.
Engr Jabbar said the conference was attended by the President of chambers of different countries as well as by Ukraine Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The presence of American Business Chamber of Commerce and Industry, former President of European Parliament, Prime Ministers of Montenegro, Lithuania and many other high profile positioned persons from abroad and from within graced the occasion as interventionists, discussants, panellist which together provided a knowledge to the delegates from Pakistan sufficient enough to consider the appropriate recommendations and move forward in preparing suggestions of political economy specific to Pakistan by just reformation of the domestic input requirements of total frame work consideration by such high profile business minds sharing their views in the annual conference.
He said that on the development needs of Ukraine for agriculture, the same could act as an advisory compulsion to engage public and private sector dialogues between both countries to improve our agriculture. Pakistan is agri economy, which generates the agri value added textile and needs to increase it's per acre yield as well as needs to improve quality of agri produce to comply the importing requirements of the country on sanitary and phytosanitary barriers. Ukraine is doing so and we can share the same with the Ukrainian experiences as how they are making settlements of sanitary and phytosanitary barriers.
He said every 11th ton of grain in the world market came from Ukraine with the population of 45 million people. The Prime Minister made a statement that the government will support almost all branches of agriculture as a part of national economic development intensification programme for 2013-14. The exports of Ukraine in 2012 climbed by 40 percent with share of agriculture in GDP registering 11 percent.
Pakistan with the agriculture share of 23 percent of the GDP struggles for food security and yet to access to meet requirements of improvements in exports and value add the agri produce through allied industries which again remains to be achieved and strategize as a policy paradigm. The Ukraine trade in grain is 9.2 percent of the world grain trade. With agriculture exports reaching 22 billion US dollar a year affecting the increase in the budget revenues.
The most interesting panel discussion revolved around "Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Zone between Ukraine and the EU: Prospects for business and investments" and "Development of the Customs Union and economic integration of CIS countries: Prospects for the Ukrainian business".
Both these discussion had a diversified approaches which would give an advantage to understand the over and under advantages of conducting free trade with either of the block or concluding to prefer the one block over another block. Engr Jabbar said the state programme of Ukraine was to include taking measures to balance state finances with real capacity of the economy and to prevent economically unreasonable tax deductions. Pakistan may consider following this base line. It also includes introduction of mechanisms for remote liaison between taxpayer and competent authorities, which Pakistan as a policy has been making advocacy for real implementation.
It also includes approval of law under which business operations that fall under minor or average risk level may terminate under a relevant court decision only, which we also in Pakistan need to improve the business management and governance by protecting the apprehended risks. The Prime Minister of Ukraine has offered to businessmen that government is open for ongoing dialogue with business to commonly find additional measures required to improve business conditions. "We in Pakistan should also develop our integration with high offices of public sector so that continuation of dialogue as per changing environment becomes result oriented to positively affect trade and business in Pakistan.
We have learnt a lot out of panel discussions on "Presentation and discussion on the participation of business and investors in the implementation of the State activation program of the economic development of Ukraine for 2013-14." He said that 73 measures with specific directions as smoothening and catalysts to increase the trade and business were worth considering for customised needs of Pakistan, he said.
Source:http://www.brecorder.com
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Biodiversity Of Staphylinids Of Punjab, Pakistan
Rove beetles belong to the largest family (Staphylinidae) of beetles in the order Coleoptera of the Class Insecta. Because of their cosmopolitan distribution with broad latitudinal ranges, they are known to play important role as pollinators, decomposers and scavengers.The studies on their biodiversity including the species richness, distribution pattern and seasonal abundance were unknown with respect to their role in ecological system in Punjab, Pakistan.The present study is therefore, being carried out to study the biodiversity of Staphylinidae in different ecological regions of Punjab. For this purpose, collection was made from cropped area (8 localities) and forest area (3 localities) of the Punjab, Pakistan with 5 different collecting methods; pitfall trapping, flight intercept trapping, light trapping, Berlese funnel trapping and sweep netting during 2008 and 2009.
Source: Nasir, Shabab (2011) Biodiversity Of Staphylinids Of Punjab, Pakistan. PhD thesis, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad .
Saturday, June 15, 2013
ASSESSMENT ON POSTHARVEST HANDLING METHOD OF MANGO
There are many kinds of mango postharvest handling methods in East Java which were conducted by farmers, whole-salers and exporters, so that fruits quality were varied. Prime quality of mango will be received by the consumers if good and properly handling method of fruits is conducted. The aim of this assessment was to determine properly and profitable handling method of mango cvs. Arumanis and Manalagi so that prime quality of harvested fruits would be obtained. This assessment used a completely randomized design with 3 treatments, replicated 8 times. Treatments used were (1) harvesting was done before 10 a.m., fruits were packed using cartoon boxes with fruit cell, (2) harvesting was done at 10 a.m.to 4 p.m, fruits were washed with 75 ppm chlorine, dipped in hot water (53°C) for 5 minutes, packed in cartoon boxes with fruit cell and fruit net, (3) harvesting was done at 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., fruits were washed with 75 ppm chlorine, packed in cartoon boxes with fruit cell and fruit net. Capacity of all boxes were 10 kg each. Each treatment was consisted of 2 boxes. Observation were done on physical and chemical characteristics, the length of storage life in ambient temperature and cost of each postharvest handling method.
Results showed that there were no significantly different on physical and chemical characteristics between the three treatments, but treatment 2 showed longer storage life than the other treatments. After 9 days at ambient temperature storage, fruits of treatment 2 were damaged as much as 8% for Arumanis cultivar and 6% for Manalagi cultivar Treatment 3 gave 25% of damaged fruits for Arumanis cultivar and 39% for Manalagi cultivar, while for treatment 1, damaged fruits reached as much as 29% for Arumanis cultivar and 66% for Manalagi cultivar Treatments 2 and 3 gave good result on organoleptic evaluation, which were better than treatment 1. Cost of handling method using treatment 2 around of Rp. 4,170.-/box for Arumanis cultivar and Rp. 3,910.-/box for Manalagi cultivar, for treatment 3 were Rp. 3,890.-/box for Arumanis cultivar and Rp. 3,630.-/box for Manalagi cultivar, while for treatment 1 was Rp. 1,950.-/box for Arumanis cultivar and Rp. 1,950.-/box for Manalagi cultivar. Handling method using treatment 2 and 3 could increased fruits' value at about 2–15% than that using treatment 1.
