Rabi crops: IRSA increases water supply by seven percent

The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) has downgraded projected water shortage for Rabi crops 2013-14 from 15 percent to 7 percent during the months of February and March as water availability in the dams and the rivers has improved considerably.

Punjab Canal Regulator and Consultant, M.H.Siddiqui, told Business Recorder here on Friday that in addition to the running water in the four live rivers of the country, 4.6 million acre ft water was still available in Tarbela and Mangla dams and Chashma reservoir for growing and maturing crops including wheat, grams, lentils, oilseeds, vegetables, fodder and orchards etc in February and March.
2.434 MAF water is available in Tarbela dam on river Indus, 2.094 MAF in Mangla dam on river Jhelum and 0.079 MAF in Chashma barrage, he added. Siddiqui said Punjab Irrigation department has been running canals in central Punjab by drawing 20,000 cusecs water from the Mangla dam and 7,300 cusecs run of the river Chenab water, yet it will open canals emanating from river Indus on 5th February 2014.

He said since the repairs work of the Qadirabad Barrage on the river Chenab and Balloki headwork on the river Ravi is still going on, the irrigation canals taking off from these water regulators would be opened on 5th February to supply water to the districts of Okara, Sahiwal, Pakpattan, Bahawalnagar to water the crops.

According to January 31 rivers flows and reservoirs level report of Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), IRSA is releasing about 70,000 cusecs water in the water ways across the country against the inflow of 36,000 cusecs at the rim stations of the river Indus 14,300 cusecs, river Kabul 8600 cusecs, Jhelum 7,000 and Chenab 7,300 cusecs.

Meanwhile Meteorological department has said that 3 to 4 spells of winter rain/ snowfall are expected during the month of February 2014.The first spell is likely to occur during the first week of February, barani areas of wheat crop may receive good rain during the period.

Source: Business Recorder

KB urges government to declare water as national asset

Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) Central President Sardar Zafar Hussein has urged the rulers to immediately declare water as a national asset and make efforts for implementation on Indus Basin Water Treaty instead of entering in to any new agreement with India. He said that the government should give preference to shortage of water being created due to Indian water aggression against Pakistan. Only solution to energy crisis is construction of immediate new dams. Zafar, while reacting to the Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif's statement of doing a new agreement with India instead of following the Indus Basin Water Treaty, KBP Chief stated that India had already deprived Pakistan of 90 percent of the river water by construction hundreds of new dams due to ineptness of Indus Water Commission officers, past and present rulers.
In the eyes of Kisan Board, the biggest issued being faced by Pakistan today is water shortage and Indian aggression against Pakistan but present rulers, in the love of India, were totally ignoring this harsh fact endangering the economy and sovereignty of Pakistan. Meanwhile Agri Forum Pakistan (AFP) Chairman Dr Muhammad Ibrahim Mughal in an e-statement on the similar issue alleged that India has launched a silent war against Pakistan and constructing many new dams on Jhelum and Chenab.

Source: http://www.brecorder.com

Indian farmers are draining Pakistan’s waters

FAISALABAD: The Director of the Water Management Research Centre (WMRC) at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF), Prof Dr Allah Bakhsh, has expressed deep concern over what he says is the excessive pumping of water by farmers on the Indian side of Punjab. Dr Bakhsh says that excessive pumping is lowering the water table in India, causing water from the Pakistani side to flow to Indian Punjab.

While speaking here at a seminar and workshop on agricultural technologies, he warned that Pakistan’s water storage capacity is abysmally low at 30 days, compared with 120 days in India, 200 days in China and Australia and 500 days in the US. He was of the view that only option left with Pakistan is to increase the crop yield per unit of land and per unit of water consumed.

The two-day seminar had been organised by WMRC and the UAF’s Department of Irrigation and Drainage, and attended by Australian Deputy High Commissioner Paul Molloy, UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan, Dr Tri Nguyen Quang from the Dalhousie University in Canada.

One of the speakers pointed out that India and Pakistan witnessed 20 and 10 billion cubic metres of water depletion respectively during the last six years, out of the 68 billion cubic metres of available surface water. “We are inefficient in using water, fertiliser, horsepower, human capital and other inputs,” he said; adding that: “If the country keeps the same practice, we will soon see a large segment of the population facing food insecurity.”

Talking about precision agriculture, Molloy said that precision farming implies a management strategy to increase productivity and economic returns with a reduced impact on the environment, by taking into account variability within and between fields. He was of the view that precision farming on a regional level is one way to apply this approach to small-farm agriculture, and may also promote the development of rural areas.

Source: The Express Tribune

IRSA releases 314,947 cusecs of water

July 03, 2013

The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) on Tuesday released 314,947 cusecs water for various rim stations with inflow of 386,513 cusecs. According to the data released by IRSA, water level in the Indus River at Tarbela Dam was 1506.58 feet, which was 128.58 feet higher than its dead level 1,378 feet. Water inflow in the dam was recorded as 199,900 cusecs while outflow was recorded as 160,000 cusecs.
The water level in the Jhelum River at Mangla Dam was 1,186.35 feet, which was 146.35 feet higher than its dead level of 1,040 feet; whereas the inflow and outflow of water was recorded as 46,666 cusecs and 15,000 cusecs, respectively. The release of water at Kalabagh, Taunsa and Sukkur was recorded as 209,324, 217,656 and 124,470 cusecs, respectively. Similarly, from the Kabul River a total of 73,400 cusecs of water was released at Nowshera and 66,547 cusecs released from the Chenab River at Marala.

Source: http://www.brecorder.com

Pray for Rain? Think Again

Favorable weather this growing season could shave $2 per bushel off the price of corn as bins, silos, and ag bags are filled to the max with a record-large corn crop. That’s the conclusion of a recent report by the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri.

Pat Westhoff, FAPRI director, says the analysis shows that new-crop corn prices will average near $5 per bushel, down from $7 for the crop harvested last fall. FAPRI’s projected corn price, however, assumes corn is planted on 96.9 million acres, which would be the second highest to 2012’s record, and a return to trend yields of 162 bushels per acre.

Last year, the average yield was only 123 bushels due to large areas of drought, and 2012 was the third year in a row that the average corn yield fell below trend, Westhoff notes. A record corn crop would allow stocks to build, sending prices sharply lower.

The FAPRI report, U.S. Baseline Briefing Book Projections for Agricultural and Biofuel Markets, was released earlier this month.

FAPRI also conducted a stochastic analysis in which computers come up with 500 potential outcomes that showed annual corn prices were below $3.50 per bushel 10 percent of the time and above $6 per bushel 10 percent of the time over the 10-year forecast period beginning in 2013. But Westhoff notes that actual volatility could be even greater.

Beginning in 2014 and continuing through 2022, average grain and oilseed prices are projected to remain well below the record levels of 2012-13, the report notes. However, they are also expected to be well above the average prices prior to 2007. Corn prices, for instance, during the forecast period average just under $5 per bushel.

Ethanol production in 2013-14 is projected to rebound significantly assuming that the biofuel mandates are enforced. "The value of the certificates used to demonstrate mandate compliance must rise substantially to cover the discount needed to sell fuels containing more than 10 percent ethanol," says the report. Ethanol production for the 2013-14 crop year grows a sharp 16 percent to 14.4 billion gallons. By the end of the forecast period, however, ethanol production is expected to hit only 15.7 billion gallons, slightly more than a 1 percent annual growth rate.

Farm income in 2013 is expected to continue strong for the third back-to-back year. "Net farm income, a measure that includes changes in the values of inventories, reaches a record $131 billion in 2013, while net cash income reached its record level in 2012. Both net income measures retreat slightly in 2014 in response to lower crop prices and receipts," the report notes.

Source: http://www.agweb.com

Water and Watering

Water and Watering

Water and Watering by Agriculture Information Bank