.
ARID
ZONE RESEARCH CENTRE
DERA ISMAIL KHAN (NWFP)
INTRODUCTION
A
project for the establishment of Arid Zone Research Institute was approved by
ECNEC in July 1971 and was put into operation in 1973-74. The headquarters
of Arid Zone Research Institute was established at Quetta (Balochistan) while
one sub-station was located in each province i.e., Arid Zone Research
Sub-Station Umer- Kot in Sindh, Arid Zone Research Sub-Station, Dera Ismail Khan
in NWFP and Arid Zone Research Sub-Station, Bahawalpur in Punjab. Later on
the Institute was up-graded to the level of Centre and the Sub-Stations were
upgraded to Institutes in 1996.
AREA
Dera
Ismail Khan is the southern most district of NWFP lying between 31o15’ to
32o32’ N and 70o11’ to 71o20’ E with an elevation of 600 meter from sea
level. D.I.Khan has a total area of 0.896 m.ha, out of which 0.300 m. ha (1/3rd)
is cultivated. Of the cultivated land, about one third (0.105 m.ha) is irrigated
while the rest 2/3rd (0.195 m.ha) depends upon rainfall for crop water
requirement. The soil structures varies from sandy to silt clay from east to
west. Most of the clayey soils are irrigated with the floodwater received
casually in torrents. This system of irrigation is called rodkohi.
CLIMATE
The
last ten years average rainfall of the area is 259.2 mm per annum. Out of
which 86.9 mm is received during the rabi seasons i.e. (October to April) while
the rest 172.3 mm is received during Kharif. The main growing season of
the area is Rabi where cropping intensity remains up to 50%. While
cropping intensity in Kharif does not exceed above 30%. This may be
due to extreme intense temperatures (below 0o C in Rabi & above 49o C
during Kharif) low relative humidity i.e., 48.5% and higher wind velocity
causing high pan evaporation. The dearth of vegetation cause high level of wind
erosion in the loose textured soils.
PROBLEMS OF THE AREA
Scarcity
of moisture/low rainfall
High
temperatures coupled with dry weather
Poor
soils with low fertility
Salinity,
Alkalinity and water logging
Soil
erosion
Out
dated crop varieties with poor quality seed
Poor
range management/over grazing
Lack
of financial resources with the farmers.
MANDATE
Management of existing natural resources to improve the livelihood of arid area farmers
Identification of problems of the arid areas and to undertake research for their solution
Screening of germplasm of cereals and legumes best suited to the local areas.
Development of more productive /improved technologies and cropping systems for dry land agriculture
Demonstration
and disseminat-ion of developed technologies to the end users/farmers
RESEARCH
HIGHLIGHTS
i) Fodder production
Rearing
of ruminants is the alternate source of income in arid areas of D.I. Khan
but scarcity of fodder is one of the major bottlenecks for its growth. To
overcome the problem, grazing/cutting of chickpea, canola and wheat was
tested that showed:
Grazing
of chickpea increased aggregate income by 39 % in rodkohi soils. The crop
sown during 1st & 2nd week of October was grazed up to 50% plant level
after 50-60 days of sowing. Both early and late grazing can affect grain
yield negatively
Local
wheat cut at 6-8 leaves stage for fodder in rodkohi soils proved economical
& profitable and gave significantly higher yield over other varieties.
Canola
cut at bud stage for fodder/vegetable (saag) decreased the yield by 50% but
the aggregate profit increased by 100%. Cutting of secondary branches at
flowering stage produced 8 t ha-1 fodder and slight increase in grain yield.
The oil content of seed was increased by 2-2.5%.
ii.
Range Grasses
Research
on 5 selected range grasses for production technologies, nutritional values,
drought potential and fodder yield was initiated.
NB
hybrid gave the highest green fodder yield under rainfed condition.
50
cm row spacing proved as optimum by giving almost double green fodder yield
compared with other spacing
The
transplantation of grasses carried out during the month of August and
September showed non-significant variation in green fodder yield.
iii.
Varietal Development
AZRI
tested different lines of wheat and chickpea in rodkohi areas for last 5
years. AZRI selection of chickpea (EJML) and wheat (PR-65) gave
significantly higher yields over the traditional varieties of both crops.
52
entries have been selected from CIMMYT trial for arid and semi arid areas.
The selection will be further screened out with the collaboration of CDRI,
NARC for agronomic characters and rust resistance.
Coordination
with different sister departments i.e. NIFA Peshawar, NARC and CIMMYT
regarding varietal evolution for rainfed areas through NUYT was done.
The
rodkohi areas having loamy soils have a greater potential for groundnut
production. Ten lines of groundnut have been obtained from oil seed
programme for testing under rod kohi conditions of D.I.Khan.
To
decrease the risk of single crop failure, intercropping of wheat with
chickpea crop 1:1 ratio was found more profitable than the crops (chickpea,
wheat, lentil and canola) sown alone and other ratios. Intercropping of
wheat and chickpea in ratio 1:1 gave additional income of amount Rs. 2000
ha-1 over pure cropping of wheat. Also the wheat chickpea intercropping 1:1
ratio gave the highest yield of wheat.
The
intercropping of local cucumber in chickpea gave 26% more monetary returns
as compared with sole crop of chickpea
Introduction
of leguminous crops in the traditional rotation of cereal crops was found
beneficial.
IV.
Production
technologies
Use
of recommended technologies in chickpea and wheat may increase the yield by
25 and 84.5%, respectively.
The
optimum time for wheat sowing in D.I. Khan is from 15 to the end of
November. Wheat planting in late November may increase the yield by 50% as
compared to October planting. The recommended seed rate is 100 kg ha-1 in
case of timely sowing in D.I. Khan. Seed at the rate of 100 kg ha-1
increased the yield by 18% as compared with 70 kg ha-1.
The
optimum time of sowing for chickpea in D.I. Khan is 10-25 October &
recommended seed rate is 80 kg ha-1. Seed at the rate of 80 kg ha-1
increased the yield by 60% as compared with 40 kg ha-1. Chickpea planting in
October may increase the yield by 42% as compared to November planting.
Inoculum use is beneficial in chickpea plantation; it increases the yield by
10%.
Row
spacing of 30 cm was found optimum for chickpea, and lentil.
Results
obtained from mungbean experimentation showed that the optimum date of
sowing is mid June.
Application
of nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilizers has non-significant effects on the
grain yield of chickpea and wheat in rodkohi area. This may be due to the
higher nutrient content of rodkohi soils and rich status of rodkohi waters.
However, in rainfed areas fertilizers application of 50-25 NP kg ha-1
increased the yield of wheat by 50%. While for chickpea the optimum dose of
fertilizer was found as 20-40 kg NP ha-1, which increased the yield by two
folds.
Optimum
rate of fertilizer for wheat is 50-25 NP kgha-1 in rainfed areas.
Optimum
rate of fertilizer for chickpea is 20-40 NP kgha-1 in rainfed areas Moisture
Conservation
Use
of mould bold plough is the best for moisture conservation. It increases the
yield by 50% in wheat crop.
Application
of sand as mulching agent was found the best moisture conservator practice
followed by surface stirring after each rainfall. Sand application increased
the yield by 10% over control.
Similarly,
furrow sowing increased the yield by 30, 39 and 48% as compared with flat
sowing in wheat, barley, and chickpea, respectively.
LOCAL FLORA
Mazri (Nannorrhops ritchieana)
Production
technology of the crop is required to be developed through research
High
yielding and favourite varieties are required to be introduced
The
primitive tools are required to be updated so as to increase out put of
processing
This
institute has taken the following steps:
Laid
out different experiments on production technology development of the crop
at farmers’ fields
Prepared
a project proposal titles “collection, screening and selection of native
germplasm of mazri in arid zone of NWFP” and submitted to ALP. After some
modifications suggested by the referees, the project has been resubmitted
for further processing/ funding.
Arranged
a visit of FMI scientist for remodeling of primitive tools used for Mazri
processing. Hope is that it will develop simple machines in near future.
TECHNOLOGIES TRANSFER
Distributed
100 bags of improved variety of chickpea (NIFA-88) and 150 bags of wheat
(sulaman-96) on return basis among the farmers of D.I. Khan for replacement
of inferior cultivars.
Canola
has been introduced in the area for replacement of rapeseed and mustard
traditional sowings. Peoples are adopting the technology.
AZRI,
D.I. Khan arranged a field day on farmer’s fields at village Kot Musa. The
developed technologies were disseminated through on farm demonstration
discussions and speeches.
Popularized
the use of Bio-fertilizers in collaboration with NARC at farmers’ fields.
Dissemination of technology for improving dry land and Rod Kohi farming in D.I.Khan, preparation of leaflets, exhibitions, field days, training, etc.
SCIENTIFIC
Dr. Rehmatullah Khan
Director
Akbar Hussain Gurmani SSO
Abdul Rashid
SSO
Mohammad Arshad Farooq SO
Matiullah Khan
SO
Dost Mohammad
SO
Ashiq Salim
SO
[Last updated: April 11, 2007]
