DUSHANBE, May 6, 2015, Asia-Plus 6 May, Dushanbe – The Field Day was held recently in Hisor District with participation of 30 Tajik Farmers.
This event was organized by FAO in Tajikistan in cooperation with local Cooperative “Sarob.”
Participants were reportedly introduced with demonstration of plots of winter wheat and barley was sown with zero tillage techniques in two rain fed fields that located in the dehqon (peasant) farm named under Abdurauf Yusupov.
“The main idea of the field day was to demonstrate for the farmers the differences of traditional planting and new zero tillage method. With traditional method before sowing land would be plow and prepared for sowing which is costly and time consumed. During the using of new technology zero tillage method farmers can plant without plowing and without preparing the land which can save extra cost and it will contribute for income of the farms”, – said Viorel Gutu, FAO Representative in Tajikistan.
Farmers were provided with brochures and posters about conservation agriculture prepared by the project titled “Conservation Agriculture.” This year long project with budget 370,000 USD will lasts until December 2015. This project is mainly works in three pilot districts such as Hisor, Danghara, and Farkhor.
Two of most important factors in the rain fed cropping system are sowing time and moisture, however with this new method farmers can sow on time and also use effectively the moisture, which can increase the yield.
Conservation Agriculture – balances yield, resource conservation and increase efficiency for smallholder farmers. Conservation agriculture is the practice of not plowing farm land and leaving crop residue on the field for improving the soil fertility. The Conservation Agriculture is approved and using from 1960s in many countries around the world. Conservation Agriculture will brings optimal yield with less cost and in the dry lands and marginal farming areas, conservation agriculture can bring very nice benefits for smallholder farmers.
