Reaching farmers in Pakistan with sustainable agricultural technologies

A training workshop on identifying sustainable agricultural technologies and translating research findings into information accessible to extension workers and farmers took place from 1 to 5 July 2013 in Islamabad, Pakistan. The workshop was organized in partnership between the Centre for Alleviation of Poverty through Sustainable Agriculture (CAPSA), Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It gathered about 23 scientists from PARC institutes around the country and three people from FAO, Pakistan office.

The workshop focused on four important parts of development work in Pakistan – (i) learning to conduct sustainability assessments of agricultural technologies; (ii) improving communication by understanding knowledge needs of different types of stakeholders as a way of addressing the gap between research and practice; (iii) sharing knowledge through targeted knowledge products such as technology factsheets.

The key outcomes generated from the training include the following:

• Participants constructed exemplary hierarchy schemes for indicator construction for five technologies.
• Participants compiled available data needed for indicator calculation for two technologies that are being promoted in Pakistan – zero-tillage and home gardens. 
• Participants produced an excel sheet for data entry and indicator calculation containing all needed formulas and calculated sustainability indicators for the two technologies mentioned above.
• Participants prepared 17 factsheets by following the template for factsheets that has been developed by SATNET Asia.
• The SATNET Asia Network expanded as it now includes all 23 researchers that attended the training.
• Strengthened collaboration with PARC, NARC and FAO in Pakistan.

The factsheets cover the following topics:

•  Managing salinity in the Indus Basin using skimming wells with pressurized irrigation technologies
•  Advancing cucumber crop by early nursery raising
• Farmers’ rice bank
•  Integrated pest management model for fruit flies in Pakistan
• Green Panic – a valuable grass for improving productivity of ranges of Potohar Plateau
•  Participatory goat breed improvement
• Post-harvest technology of deciduous fruit crops
• Popularizing nutritionally-balanced cattle feed for increasing productivity of dairy farms in Pakistan 
• New high yielding tomato varieties for Gilgit Baltistan
• Boron application increases cotton yield in Pakistan
• Micro-irrigation system
• Cultivation of medicinal plants on marginal lands of Cholistan Desert through training of farmers
• Home gardening for eco-friendly healthy diet and pesticide risk free vegetables
• A new high yielding oat variety for rainfed Potohar and irrigated areas of Pakistan
• Biological control of sugarcane borers by using insect natural enemy
• Phytoremediation technology
• The FMI seeder and its performance

The workshop facilitators used a number of processes to encourage participants’ learning and knowledge sharing. Participants’ feedback showed that whether they engaged in individual or group work, analytical or writing exercises, peer reviews, role playing or various discussions, everybody contributed to the training and left home enriched.  “We learned what sustainability is and how to assess it based on indicators. Once I identify a sustainable technology, I now know how to communicate it,” shared one of the participants during the final reflection.