SECMC, KU join hands to bring paradigm shift in Thar’s agriculture

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The Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) and Halophyte Institute of Karachi University (HI-KU) are confident that the success of a pilot of Bio-saline agriculture is set to bring paradigm shift to the entire agriculture and livestock landscape of Tharparkar region and would make drought an irrelevant phenomenon. Prof. Dr. Bilqees Gul of HI-KU has said that “We started growing Panicum fodder or grass at the end of June this year and have been able to take its first harvest successfully.

The fodder has been given out to different livestock owners for testing purpose and, reportedly, the animals are eating it as they would a normal fodder, said Dr. Bilqees while speaking at a contract signing ceremony held between SECMC and IH-KU here on Friday. As per the contract, the Karachi University will grow halophytic fodder on the brackish underground water in Thar Coal Block II of Tehsil Islamkot, Tharparkar, which will be fully facilitated by SECMC. At the outset of this year, the SECMC had signed an MoU with HI-KU for a pilot project of growing fodder and a couple of weeks back they had the first harvest of it, which led to signing of the contract under discussion for furthering the growing of fodder in the area.

The contract was signed by Mr. Syed Abul Fazl Rizvi, Chief Operating Officer, SECMC, and Prof. Dr. Bilquees Gul, Director, HI-KU whereas, Mr. Shamsuddin Ahmed Shaikh, Chief Executive Officer, SECMC, Prof. Dr. M. Ajmal Khan, Vice Chancellor, University of Karachi, and Malik Ihtisham Haider, AM HSE from SECMC witnessed the ceremony.

Speaking at the occasion, COO, SECMC Mr Abul Fazal Rizvi said that with the success of this project, we will witness a paradigm shift in how people grow crops in Tharparkar region. He said, “While mining the coal at Thar Block II, we are not just removing the overburden, but also carrying out dewatering at the same time. We will be extracting 30million cubic meter of water of 4,500 TDS every year.”

“Although the water could well be utilized for drinking purpose after treating it via Reverse Osmosis plants, but we wanted to utilize it for agriculture purposes as well and this made us approach some relevant research institute,” Rizvi added.

Dr. Bilqees was of the view that they are planning to grow the fodder on an area of one acre, initially. ” We will be carrying out different sets of experiments on its growth to check where and in which condition Panicum fodder grows best,” she said. Adding that, she said they will undertake plantation of Panicum in the first phase of the project, followed by its ecological studies and biochemical as well as nutritive and anti-nutritive analysis in the next one. “We are actually looking at it as a complete business model in which we can produce green fodder, dry fodder, and energy ration coupled with a lively livestock industry,” she added.

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