Curricula Development Workshop on vegetable production in Tunnels.
INTRODUCTION:
CABI South Asia Regional Centre Pakistan has been working for the capacity building of farming community in six districts of Punjab through TOF and FFS approach in collaboration with 6 districts in Rawalpindi, Rahem Yar Khan, Toba Teak Singh, Sargodha, Mulatn and Lahore under the umbrella of Fruit and Vegetable Development Project, Punjab. The main Objective of the project is to alleviate poverty by enhancing farmer’s net income through diversification to high value fruit and vegetable crops in the province. This will be achieved through human resource development and capacity building of all the stake holders of public sector as well as private sector with the main aim to sensitize them to export oriented production and marketing development strategy in a systematic manner by including all the stakeholders. Regarding maximizing crop production the objectives are to organize farming community under farmer field schools (FFS) system to educate them in mango, citrus and other fruit and vegetables production technology, minimizing pesticide use, awareness creation regarding international sanitary and phyto sanitary measures in export and marketing, establishing network between FFS and service providers, conversion of FFS into self sustaining Farmers Associations and popularization of off-season vegetable production through low cost tunnels.
In this connection, a three days workshop on “Curricula Development Workshop on Vegetables Production in Tunnels” from June 8th -10th 2006, has been organized and conducted by CABI South Asia Regional Centre Pakistan at Hotel Adventure Inn Islamabad. The objective of the workshop was to develop curricula of vegetable production in tunnels. The overall purpose was to understand the vegetable production issues/constrains of tunnel technology and to find out their solutions for getting better production of vegetables and market them prior to the seasonal vegetable for getting maximum monitory benefits. The participants were drawn from different educational, research, public, private, NGOs, extension institutions and fresh vegetable exporters etc all over the province Punjab. A sum of 55 participants participated in this workshop. Inauguration of the workshop was done by chief guest Ch Abdul Ghafor, Director General Agriculture Extension department and adoptive research department Lahore, followed by the address of Dr. Rana Muhammad Shafiq on delivering project and workshop objectives and history to the participants. Dr. Muhammad Ashraf Poswal than finally formally well come the participants of the workshop and formal technical session has been started.
This workshop have following technical sessions: Introduction and Norm setting, Tunnel Farming, Issues and solutions identification of tunnel farming, Broad spectrum issues identification of vegetable production in Pakistan and a technical lecture delivered on tunnels structuring and cost-benefit ratio of the technology. All the participants were divided into Five groups/bus, work done in groups through probing , discussion and data was presented on charts. The groups were as following.
Bus # 01 Soil and Seed
Bus # 02 Tillage and Crop stand
Bus # 03 Water and Nutrient Management
Bus # 04 Integrated Pest Management
Bus # 05 Harvesting, Post Harvesting and Marketing.
Introduction and Norm Setting
Facilitator: Mrs. Bushra Raza Ahmed
In the beginning the participants were briefed by the facilitator about introduction, its purpose, methodology and content coverage. Therefore each participant was asked to introduce his/her self. The introduction included name, department/ institution, academic qualification and professional experience. The objective of the exercise was to encourage the participants:
· To come out of their shells.
· To share experiences and assess expertise available within group.
· To improve intimacy and promote spirit of consultative process.
Through this exercise it was found that the participants were having a rich academic and professional background. A summary is given below:
· In total there were participants. These participants were from the field of Plant pathology, Entomology, Plant breeding and Genetics, Agronomy, Horticulture, Rural sociology, Agriculture Extension etc and their academic degrees ranged from Master’s to Ph.D.
· Their work experience ranged from 5 to 30 years in public, private and NGO sectors.
· 02 participants were tunnel farmer, while one was exporter of fresh vegetables.
After introduction training norms were set among and mutual participation of the participants. The main features of the exercise were as following:
· Time should be managed during session.
· Respect each participants opinion.
· Working environment should be friendly.
· Raise hand before answering.
· Discussion should be to the point.
· Avoid conflict.
· Mobiles should be on silent mode during session.
· Avoid wondering during session.
· Use Urdu as main medium of language.
Tunnel Farming
Facilitator: Ghulam Ali
Co-Facilitators: Mrs. Bushra Raza and Mr. Qamar Zia
During this session the participants of the hall were asked few questions. These were Why tunnel farming? What are the issues of tunnel farming?. Flip cards were distributed among the participants and responses were than shared. Following are the responses against each question.
WHY TUNNEL FARMING?
· To increase production of off-season vegetables and to enhance farmers income.
· To keep the vegetable prices stable
· As agriculture land holding is becoming less with the passage of time so through tunnel farming farmers can produce more in less space and earn more money.
· To get more benefit by early availability of seasonal vegetables in market.
· To get vegetables in off-season
· Through tunnel farming, farmer can get healthy and good quality vegetables.
· To get quality seed production through tunnel farming.
· To get quality production for export purpose under WTO scenario.
· To produce off-season vegetables for getting better price and its availability to consumer.
· Tunnel farming should be adopted as new technology in Pakistan.
· Better use of inputs in tunnel farming.
· To improve the livelihood of farmers.
· To have sustainable vegetable production to meet the future needs.
Issues in tunnel farming?
· Lack of technical know how about tunnel farming.
· Lack of specification according to area (cold areas).
· Lack of specification of tunnel installation with respect to wind direction.
· Lack of awareness about tunnel farming importance in farmer.
· Farmers are loosing their interest in tunnel farming because they adopted it without technical consultation that results into their loss.
· Lack of knowledge about disease in tunnel.
· Lack of skill in tunnel farming.
· Insect pest management in tunnel farming.
· Lack of information in tunnel technology.
· Tunnel technology is expensive and demands high skill.
· Availability of hybrid seed in tunnel farming.
· Vegetable production only for one season.
· Marginalized farmers can not afford it.
· Lack of knowledge , finance, required inputs.
· Unavailability of technology and finances.
· Lack of knowledge about cost/benefit ratio of tunnel farming.
Presentations by groups on suggested solutions of identified issues in Tunnel Farming.
Facilitator: Ghulam Ali
Co. Facilitators: Mr. Qamar, Mr. Shakeel, Mr. Ghohar Ayub, Mr. Fazal Hamid, Mrs Bushra Raza Ahmed, Ms. Sarah Amir
The last session on day one was identification of issues of vegetable production in tunnels. Day second was started with the recitation of Holy Quran. Dr. Rashid from Vegetables Research Institute AARI recap the day one activities. Later on the facilitator assigned the previously formed groups to work on and also to present the causes and possible solutions of identified issues of vegetable production in tunnel farming. The groups findings are as following:
Bus # 1 Seed and Soil Health
S.No / ISSUES/CAUSES / SOLUTIONSA / soil
1
2
3
4
5
6
7 / Type of soil
· Poor soil structure and texture (sandy & clayey)
Low Organic matter
· Lack of awareness regarding importance of organic matter
· Lack of availability
· High crop intensity
fertility status
· Low fertility
a. Imbalance fertilization
b. Low fertilization
· No organic fertilization
Hard pan
· Improper ploughing
· Improper soil moisture
· Lack of organic matter
Water holding capacity
· Low organic matter
· Poor soil structure and texture
Improper Nutrient application
· Plant requirement
· Balanced nutrition
· Proper time
· Lack of tissue and soil test facility
Soil health
· Sodicity
· Salinity
· Inoculum of any disease / · Adding organic matter
· Addition of Gypsum in clayey soil
· Green manuring before 75 days of planting in tunnel
· Ideal organic matter is 2% or more
· Compost
· Crop rotation
· Use of leguminous crops in rotation
· Soil testing
· Balanced fertilizer use
· Fertilization should be according to the demands of crop
· Ploughing with proper plough
· Addition of proper organic matter and moisture
· Addition of organic matter
· Addition of gypsum in clayey soil
· Every seed corporation should provide all information to farmers
· Education and training
· Analysis facilities should be extended
· Select normal soil
· Use amendments like gypsum and/ Sulphuric Acid
· Use of proper fungicides
B / Seed
1 / Crop specification with tunnel type?
· High
Lack of hybrid seed availability
Cross pollination issue
· Walk in tunnel
· Low
Not recommended for early growing of vegetables.
Management problem for weeding, pesticides application
High insect pest and diseases due to low air circulation.
Tomato if early sowing than viral attack and if late planting than market price will be low.
At low temperature in tomato (14 C ) no fruit setting (flowering) / · Cucumber
· Tomato (indeterminate hybrid)
· Kaddu
· Bitter gourd
· Bell pepper
· Hot chilies
· Tomato (determinate hybrid)
· Cucumber
· Kaddu and bitter gourd (can be late sowing with high support structure)
· Trainings on production technology
· Tunnel pipe should be of 1.5 inch diameter
· Sowing time adjustment
· Bitter gourd, bottle gourd, cucumber, melon and water melon, pumpkin, hard gourd.
· Seed treatment.
· Soil treatment.
· Mulching.
· Growing nursery in cold areas.(15 September sowing and transplanting on 15 October)
· Growing nursery by covered tactics misters and net + mencozeb +
· Metalaxly.
· Heating by bulbs
· Electric air blowers for soil temperature
· Install pipes and connect hot water.
2 / Varieties:
· Market demand.
· Yield potential
· Paarthenocarpy
· Hybrid
· Resistance. / · Fellow farmers.
· Research institution and extension workers.
· General awareness
· Hybrid screening programmes
· Acclimatization
· Authentic seed source.
· Cucumber
· F1 hybrid
· Beith alphy
· Parthenocarpic
· Gynosious hybrids(low tunnels)
· Local Disease resistance.
3 / Seed availability:
/ · Near by market.
· Farmers associations
· Information of seed providers
· (research + university+ extension)
· Catalogue of seeds.
4 / Seed quality:
Seed health
Certification. / · Healthy crop stand.
· Treated seed.
· Healthy and clean.
· High germination percentage.
· Vigorous to temperature.
· Registered.
5 / Supply position:
Consistency.
Near by/ easy access.
Quantity requirement.
Timely availability / · Reliable and renowned source./ company agents.
· Wide spread dealership.
· Advance booking.
· Financially strong dealers.
6 / Production technology package:
Seed price.
/ · Must be provided by the seed supplier.
· Registered company may bound to supply information through agriculture graduates.
· Farmers associations collectively purchased through main dealers and companies.
Bus # 02 Tillage and Crop stand
S.No / ISSUES/CAUSES / SOLUTIONSA / Tillage
1
2
3
4 / Hard Pan:
Ploughing through tractor in “watter” condition.
Puddling for rice.
Increased cropping intensity.
Lack of organic mater.
Lack of organic mater:
Increased cropping intensity.
Improper crop rotation.
High temperature
Improper use of herbicides.
Lack of skill in compost formation.
Lack of specific implements:
High cost/ farmers affordability.
Unleveled field:
Mould bold plough
Bed Shaper etc. / · Cross chiseling after 3 years.
· Increase organic mater.
· Technical know how for green manuring and proper crop rotation.
· Temperature is natural factor and out of human control
· Safe and effective use of herbicides.
· Skill enhancement in compost formation.
· Corporate farming.
· Provide subsidy
· Provide Interest free loan.
· Laser land leveling.
· Blade and Karah
B / Crop Stand
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 / Time of sowing
Seed rate:
Lack of awareness in production technology (PxP and RxR)
Poor Quality Seed:
Week
Diseased seed
Damaged
Impure
Nursery raising and transplanting:
Time of sowing
Nursery bed preparation
Transplanting
Improper seed Placement:
Unleveled bed
Labor negligence during dibbling.
Poor Germination:
Climatic conditions(rain fall, temperature.)
Seed health
Improper moisture condition.
Diseases and insects (termites)
Rodents.
Mortality of newly germinated baby plants.
Diseased seed
Newly emerged plant have diseases incidence (damping off).
Cut worm, termites.
Cold and hot waves.
Birds.
Tunnel Direction:
Not proper tunnel direction.
/ · Skill enhancement
· Attractive labor wages.
· Technical know how about each crop and variety.
· Skill enhancement in self seed production.
· Hybrid seed companies should be forced to launched hybrid seed production in Pakistan.
· Proper time of transplanting
· Seed treatment with fungicides
· Transplantation at evening.
· Leveled bed preparation.
· Skill enhancement of manual dibblers.
· Attractive labor charges.
· Proper supervision.
· First irrigate than dibbling.
· Seed dibbling after proper covering in tunnels to avoid rain affects.
· Technical know how regarding adverse affect of temperature.
· Seed treatments.
· Seed grading.
· Sinker/ floater technology.
· Land and bed leveling.
· Skill enhancement to check proper soil moisture.
· Use of well rotten FYM.
· Use of Zinc Phosphate bait.
· Use of disease free seed.
· Seed treatment.
· Gap filling by nursery in polyether bags.
· Weed control.
· Proper crop rotation.
· Drenching of proper pesticides.
· Wind brakes
· Drum beating.
· False eraction.
· Proper tunnel direction- North-South
Bus # 03 Water and Nutrient Management