Engro imparts rice innovation knowledge in farmers

KARACHI: Engro has successfully concluded imparting System Productivity Innovative Rice Training (SPIRiT) knowledge in small land holder farmers in Punjab, a statement said on Monday.
The program was initiated by Engro Foundation, CSR arm of Engro Corporation, along with Engro Eximp Agriproducts, the Company’s rice processing business.
The project introduced innovative and effective rice-wheat farming techniques and technologies to farmers in five districts of Punjab.
The project was supported by the TVET Reform Support Programme, which is funded by the European Union, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Royal Norwegian Embassy.
It has been commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and is being implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
The SPIRIT project trained 10,782 farmers and 1,644 agri-farm support persons in the areas of resource and water conservation, plant population management, improved harvesting and best crop management practices in the rice–wheat cropping system over a period of 20-months, from December 2013 to July 2015.
The project area comprised of 40-50 villages in each selected pocket of Sheikhupura (Mureedke & Khanqah Dogran), Gujranwala/ Sialkot (Qilla Deedar Singh & Madiala Tigga) and Mandi Baha Uddin (Gojra).
Farmers were introduced to innovative techniques such as Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR), Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), Optimum Plant Population Management (OPPM), Zero-tillage Wheat Sowing and Quality Harvesting of Paddy.
Another important component was to upgrade & install rice-harvesting kits in the combined harvesters being used in the targeted area.
The project distributed 200 uniquely designed quality rice-harvesting kits that can be installed in the combine harvesters, facilitating quality harvesting of paddy with minimum harvesting losses.