TOBA TEK SINGH: Farmers are taking interest in sowing hybrid maize for a better crop after continuous losses in cultivation of crops of wheat, rice, sugarcane and cotton in the last few years.

With the cooperation of World Bank, the Punjab government has introduced a scheme of drip irrigation system installation for which it provided 60 percent of the cost while remaining is to be paid by the growers.

This correspondent visited Chak99-JB, where Abdul Khaliq, a UK returned farmer having 100 acres, has cultivated hybrid crops. He said he was impressed by a four-acre landlord Usman who had sown hybrid maize last year and earned a suitable income from the yield.

Usman told Dawn that he had never got more than 40 maunds (1,600 kg) from one acre of corn but last year he cultivated hybrid maize which produced average of 103 maunds per acre.

Khalig says he cultivated hybrid maize on his 12 acres and also installed drip irrigation at the cost of Rs2.64 million for which the Water Management Departmentprovided him 60 percent of the expenditures.

District Water Management Officer Dr Muhammad Asif said the trend of sowing hybrid maize with drip irrigation was increasing every year and during the current sowing season more than 1,000acres hybrid maize had been sown in the district.

He added drip irrigation was a better choice as subsoil water of the district was brackish and canal water was insufficient to meet the needs of farmers.

He said with the available canalwater, farmers could irrigate five acres with drip irrigation with the water meant meant for one acre in the traditional manners.

He said that in villages of Rajana, farmers were simultaneously using drip irrigation for maize, orchards and vegetables.