PCRWR has established Research and Demonstration Farms in different agro-climatic zones of the country: Mera Kachori, Peshawar (12 acres); Dingarh (500 acres), Toba Allahyar (100 acres), Hyderwali (200 acres), Naraywala (200 acres), Cholistan; Sariab Road, Quetta (8 acres); Nushki, Balochistan (500 acres); Mithi, Tharparkar (200 acres); Tandojam, Hyderabad (40 acres); Sial Mor, Sargodha (21 acres); and Chak Beli, Gujar Khan (22 acres).
These R&D farms are equipped with farm machineries, meteorological observatories, lysimeter stations etc. The experiments on different irrigation techniques; soil-water plant relationship, soil and water conservation, rangeland/grassland development, watershed management, rainwater harvesting etc. are under implementation in the irrigated, arid and mountainous areas of the country.

Darkali Kalan

PCRWR Research and Demonstration Farm for Rainfed Areas is located at Darkali Kalan, district Rawalpindi at 73.03O E and 33.30O N, 60 km away from Islamabad. It encompasses an area of 175 kanals typically representing the Potohar topography and livelihood. Here, integrated water management research is conducted to improve farm productivity under rainfed conditions. The R&D works trialed there are based upon the philosophy, “keep it simple”. The interventions carried out at the farm are therefore simple and socially-acceptable and are yielding substantial economic returns. Salient management practices at the farm are: micro-catchments for orchard plants, solar-powered drip system for supplemental irrigation of orchards, solar-powered farmhouse electrification system, rooftop rainwater harvesting and drip bucket irrigation systems for kitchen gardening, slope transverse ploughings for erosion control and runoff entrapments, rainwater harvesting ponds etc.

Micro-catchments

Micro-catchment is a specially designed area with slope and dikes to increase runoff and concentrate it in planting basins. Maximum amount of runoff gathers near the root zone, infiltrate and stored in soil profile. Micro-catchments may enhance the water availability to the plant 3-4 times of the amount of annual rainfall. A number of fruit trees can be exclusively grown on rainfall, or it significantly reduces the supplemental irrigation requirement. Micro-catchments were developed around citrus, grapes, cactus, plum and other fruit trees at the farm to cut their irrigation requirements.

Solar-powered trickle system for supplemental irrigation

Trickle irrigation is a viable technology for the region, if designed and installed properly. Nevertheless, availability of power source in remote areas is a major hindrance for adoption of trickle system. Small solar-powered pumping unit can solve this problem. A 260 watt solar panel was connected to a 0.33HP submersible pump (DC, 5 GPM) at the farm. The pump was lowered in 40ft deep dugwell to pump water to 150 ft height. For this purpose, three overhead tanks (500 gallons each) have been placed at three different high locations. The system daily operates for 6 hours and is sufficient to fill 2 of the tanks, if required. These tanks are irrigating over 4 acres orchard through low pressure tickle system.

Rooftop rainwater harvesting

A technique in which rainwater is captured from the roof surface and stored in tanks for subsequent uses. Rainwater from the roofs is collected by connecting it’s outlet to storage tanks (300-500 gallons) through pipe. A screen is attached to the outlet to prevent leaves and mud entry. The amount of harnessable water depends upon roof size, rainfall and the uses. The stored water can be used for domestic purposes and small scale gardening. The water harvested from office building is being used for the nursery. Besides, a number of plants are being irrigated from it.

Slope Transverse Ploughing

Pothwar’s uneven topography leads to rapid drainage of water to the low-lying areas resulting in loss of water, soil and nutrients. Cultivation of crops with drill develops little furrows. Their orientation is kept transverse to natural flow direction. It reduces flow velocity, maximizes rainfall retention and thus reduced soil and nutrient losses. Yield of wheat and mung cultivated in this way was double than the neighboring farmers.

Plantation on Slopes

Soil erosion primarily originates from nude slopes. The slopes can be stabilized by plantation as roots act as binding agents for soil particles. Species having strong and intruding roots may be preferred for this. Cactus, beri (zizphus jujube), phalsa (Grewia asiatica), plum (Prunus salicina), etc. were planted on fragile slopes. It helped mitigate the primary soil erosion.

Storm water management and harvesting

The waterways draining water collected from rills and gullies are the next category erosion source. Such waters may be katcha channelized and diverted to the adjacent depressions at regular intervals. This reduces erosion and the harvested pond water help recharge groundwater. The natural waterways of the entire farm were marked. Selected numbers of erosion-prone waterways were channelized. The intercepted water was diverted to the adjacent low-lying ponds, dug for storage. This helped in raising water table in the adjacent dugwell.

Sialmore

PCRWR established a Research & Demonstration (R&D) Centre in 2005 comprising land of 21 acres to research trials on water conservation strategies for Irrigated Agriculture. The Center is located about 4 km away from Sial interchange on M2 motorway in District Sargodha. Research activities at the Center are focused to enhance water use efficiency (WUE) by introducing adaptable water conservation techniques. Though, drip and sprinkler irrigation system have proved best WUE and saving of water 50-70 percent but its capital and operation cost is challenge of the farmer. PCRWR focuses on adaptable and economical viable techniques like bed and furrow irrigation, zero tillage (sowing of wheat followed by rice) and LASER land leveling by which 20-40 percent of water is saved in wheat and rice crop without compromising the yield. The Centre not only maintained its research impact on the farming community but also expanded its research findings to Punjab Agriculture department. Successful trials have been conducted to test water management technologies especially rice and wheat plantation on beds/ridges, Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) on beds and flat fields.

Rice on Beds
Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) on Beds
Citrus, Guava & Grapes Orchard at R&D Farm

Automatic Weather Station

PCRWR/ IWMI ‘with generous support of USAID’ have installed an automated weather station (sometimes called automatic weather station) at PCRWR research station sialmore, Sargodha. Automatic weather station provides an integrated system of components that are used to measure, monitor & study the weather. It is an automated version of the traditional weather station to save human labour and to enable high frequency measurements. An Automated weather station will typically consist of a weather-proof enclosure containing the data logger, rechargeable battery and telemetry. The meteorological sensors (solar radiation & humidity), telemetry external antenna, a solar panel and wind turbine mounted upon a mast. It records temperatures (Maximum, minimum & average), relative humidity, wind speed & direction and solar radiation hourly. It also calculates by itself the hourly reference evapotranspiration (ET0). This data is then sent using mobile phone technology to a secure remote (cloud) server twice a day (can be programmed as desired in terms of data collected and transmission) where the data is post-processed.

Groundwater Monitoring

An observation well has been installed at (R&D) Centre, Sialmore since 2007 and monthly monitoring of water-table depth is a routine practice. However, a CTD diver is also installed with the support of ‘International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Pakistan’. The CTD-Diver is a submersible datalogger for long-term uninterrupted, real-time water level monitoring using a pressure sensor when submerged at a fixed level under the water surface. The pressure sensor measures the equivalent hydrostatic pressure of the water above the sensor diaphragm to calculate the total water depth. In addition, to a pressure sensor the CTD-Diver is also equipped with a 4-electrode conductivity sensor for measuring the true or specific electrical conductivity of the water. The Diver autonomously measures conductivity, pressure and temperature and records them in its internal memory. The CTD diver is programmable to record data at desired frequency (PCRWR programmed it to record the data once a day). The Diver is ideal for ground and surface water level applications.

Installation of NDVI Cameras

The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is a graphical indicator that can be used to assess the amount of vegetation on the ground from a space platform or satellites. The NDVI is one of the successful methods to simply/ quickly identify vegetated areas and their condition, and it remains the most well-known index to detect live green plant canopies in multispectral remote sensing data. PCRWR/ IWMI have installed four NDVI cameras on agriculture field at the R&D Centre Sialmore. All (four) cameras have fitted at the same pole at 5 m height to cover the four directions (i.e. North, south, East & West). An instrument/ computer also attached with poles which operate the cameras at set frequency (can be programmed as per requirement) and store the data/ images in its memory. Then, collected images can be downloaded into laptop or mobile phone via Bluetooth or cable. The downloaded images then post processed to extract the NDVI values of particular crops grown around the pole. Once the NDVI values of different crops will be verified then we can use those NDVI values for ground trothing of land cover imaginary of satellites as well as to identify cropping patterns from in different parts of the country.

Irrigation Scheduling

One of the most important factors that leads to wastage of precious water is the lack of knowledge about irrigation scheduling (when to irrigate and how much to irrigate?). Due to lack of this knowledge, farmers keep on applying water even when a crop does not need irrigation. This is not only the wastage of water but also wastage of precious nutrients that are leached down with excess water. Irrigation scheduling is being practiced on different crops at R & D centre, Sialmore. Irrigation scheduling based on soil moisture deficit (SMD), estimated through the installation of soil moisture sensors (tensiometers, Chameleon etc.). In wheat crop irrigation was applied at 50% SMD, whereas for rice, the irrigation applied daily in furrows till the establishment of crop (about two weeks). Then irrigation interval gradually increased and scheduling was set at 50% SMD.

Water Conservation Studies

Research activities at the Center are focused to enhance water use efficiency (WUE) by introducing adaptable water conservation techniques. Though, drip and sprinkler irrigation system have proved best WUE and saving of water 50-70 percent but its capital and operation cost is challenge of the farmer. PCRWR focuses on adaptable and economical viable techniques like bed and furrow irrigation, zero tillage (sowing of wheat followed by rice) and LASER land leveling by which 20-40 percent of water is saved in wheat and rice crop without compromising the yield. The Centre not only maintained its research impact on the farming community but also expanded its research findings to Punjab Agriculture department. Successful trials have been conducted to test water management technologies especially rice and wheat plantation on beds/ridges, Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) on beds and flat fields.

Services being provided to Farmers

R&D Center Sialmore is equipped with technologies and field equipment’s used for best water management practices at farm level. The equipment used at the Center for technology demonstration also provided to farming community to facilitate them with new technologies against nominal charges. The rates are set on the basis of no profit no loss i.e (Rs.450/hr). It includes the services of our trained staff i.e. driver with tractor and field equipment. The available services are as follows;
• Improved Farm Layout
• LASER Land Leveling
• Zero Tillage Drill
• Bed Planter for Rice and Wheat
• Ridger

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Capacity Building Workshops/ Farmer Days
PCRWR frequently organize farmer field days at R&D centre Sialmore to showcase the different water conservation techniques and technologies. Also, technical guidance being provided to the willing farmers on use of different water conservation techniques and technologies.
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Dingarh Cholistan

The Regional Office, Bahawalpur has established its Field Research Station (FRS) at Dingarh in the Cholistan desert, to conduct applied research on water resources and desertification control in the desert environment.

Location of FRS Dingarh:

The field research station is about 65 km from Bahawalpur City towards South direction in the smaller Cholistan of Tehsil Yazman. It is located just behind the ruins of Dingarh Fort. It will take appx. one hour and 45 minutes to reach out there by travelling through the fastest route i.e. Bahawalpur-Main Yazman Road-Yazman City-Mukdi Adda-Chak 76/DNB more-Chak 80/DNB more-Gohaywar Dahar-Din Garh. Moving forward from Gohaywar Dahar, a watch tower of Pak Army will be seen which is mounted at the center of Dingarh Fort.

Objective of FRS Dingarh

The purpose of this station is to conduct research on desertification monitoring, its control and mitigation is being carried out. The research activities are: rainwater harvesting, sand dune stabilization, wind erosion control, afforestation on dune land, development of land, saline agriculture silvipasture and orchard development by conjunctive use of rain and ground water, range management by controlled grazing. More than 250 hectares catchments area has been developed, by removing obstacles and excavation of small ditches, to increase the runoff efficiency and harvesting maximum rainwater. Seven rainwater harvesting ponds have been constructed. These ponds can collected about 50000 cubic meter water of rain annually, for drinking of human and livestock living in the desert area. A meteorological observatory is established at the station. The data on rainfall, maximum and minimum temperatures, relative humidity, wind speed and direction is recorded regularly.

Tree plantation

Tree plantation of various plant species at research site has been carried out. Planting material was consisting of some fruit, fuel and medicinal plants species. Whereas among them some were exotic and others were indigenous species. In fuel plants desi kikar (acacia nilotica), parkinsonia (parkinsonia aculeate), in fruit plants desi and grafted beri(zizyphusjujuba), pomegranate (punicumgranatum), date palm (phoenix dactylifera) and in medicinal plants nim (azadirachtaindica), pilu (salvadorapersical) and moringa oleifera were transplanted in the experimental area. The detail of transplantation of nursery of various plant species is given below.

A. FRUIT PLANTS

i. BERI (Zizyphusjujuba):- Beri is one of the hardy minor fruit crop suitable for cultivation in arid conditions. The ber fruit crop tolerates high temperature and aridity by cessation of growth, leaf fall and dormancy stage. Beri is known as poor man’s fruit. In experimental area desi beri 200 No. and grafted beri 100 No. were transplanted.

ii. POMEGRANATE (Punicumgranatum):- Pomegranate farming is the best business for the farmers to earn more profit. It is an important commercial fruit. Semi arid type of climate conditions provide better growth to the pomegranate plant. Sunlight is the necessary conditions for growing pomegranate fruit alongwith dry summer and cold winter. 13 No. nursery plants have been transplanted in the experimental area. Survival of the plants found 100% upto May, 2020.

iii. DATE PALM (Phoenix dactylifera):- Date palm is cultivated in arid and semi arid regions which are characterized by long and hot summer, no rainfall and low relative humidity. Date palm can with stand strong hot and dusty summer winds. Date palm grow in various types of soil i.e. light, medium and heavy, but require good drainage and air penetration in the soil. Date palm are resistant to alkaline soil. Date palm is one of the most potential fruit crop for dry arid zone of the country.

B.MEDICINAL PLANTS

B. MEDICINAL PLANTS

i. NEEM (Azadirachtaindica):- Neem plants require or survive with little water; however they need plants of sunlight and sensitive to frost. Neem has an excellent scope of commercialization and importance in agriculture, veterinary, cosmetics and medicines. Neem is an eco-friendly and natural source of phyto-chemicals and nutrients, due to this fact it gained importance in agriculture sector. 200 No. nursery plants were transplanted in experimental area.

ii.SOHANJNA (Moringa oleifera): This plant have ability to grow in any type of soil and can resist harsh climate. It is also discovered through research that all parts of moringa tree can be used to cure a large number of diseases naturaly, its seeds can be used as natural water purifier. Its leaves are rich in nutrients, its seeds have oil which is also called ben oil. Moringa oleifera can be used in agroforestry, it can be used as bio pesticide.. In 2019-2020 100 Nos plants of moringa were transplanted in the experimental area.

iii. Pilu (salvadora persical):- Pilu is a large bush of small tree of desert. It grows as a mangrove perennial tree as well as under saline and drought conditions. These plants produce fruits with and without seeds. It grows well under arid environment, salt stress conditions and low moisture with high temperature. It is used in preparation of miswak tooth paste and so many medicines. In reported period, thirty number nursery plants were transplanted in the field. For the better growth of plants all necessary cultural practices have been carried out.

C. FUEL PLANTS

i. DESI KIKAR (Accacianilotica):- This is a medium sized, thorny, nearly ever green tree that can reach a height of 20 – 25 meters. Desi kikar is popular as agroforestry tree. This is a multi purpose tree, widely used as timber, source of fodder for camels, goats and sheep, as a fence, shed and fuel tree. At Field Research Station Dingarh, 200 Nos desi kikar were transplanted. Conjunctive use of irrigation water (rainwater collected in pond and ground saline water) is being used for irrigation

ii. PARKINSONIA (Parkinsonia aculeata):- Parkinsoia is a small evergreen spiny tree and can grow in any soil. It is used for fire wood, leaves and pods used as fodder for goats and sheeps, it is a source of shed in desert environment. It is useful in soil stabilization as a wind break and erosion control and reforestation in sandy areas. 200 No. nursery plants of parkinsonia transplanted in the experimental area.

Cactus Plantation

Cactus is becoming a profitable agriculture enterprise in the field of agriculture sector. It is xerophytic plant that has the ability to survive in water scarcity conditions. It acts as a good source of food for humans, edible part of both fruit and modified stem. Keeping in view the importance, about one thousand pads have been planted on one acre dry barren land at Field Research Station Din Garh to test the growth in harsh climatic conditions of Cholistan Desert.

Nursery Development

Nursery of various plant species is being developed at Field Research Station Dingarh for further propagation in field area. In this context seeds of Moringa oliefera 200 Nos. desi beri (Zizyphusjujuba) 300 Nos., desi kikar (Acacia nilotica) 400 Nos., Jand (Prosopis specigena) 200 Nos., karir (Capparis decidas) 100 Nos., atriplex (salt bush) 250 Nos., Neem (Azadirachtaindica) 300 Nos. sown in polyethylene bags, while cuttings of phog(Calligonumpolygonoides) 200 Nos. and frash (tamarix) 200 Nos. also planted in polyethylene bags for the development of nursery of these plants.

Drip Tandojam

The Drainage and Reclamation Institute of Pakistan (DRIP) is located at Tando Qaiser Road Tando Jam about 18 kilometers in the east of Hyderabad. The research activities at R&D farm (22 acres) are focused on crop water requirement and water conservation techniques to enhance the water productivity. DRIP research farm has attractive orchards of Mango, Guava, Lemon, and Jujube. This office has conducted research on wheat, cotton, sugarcane and banana on raised beds, bed & furrow, ridges and disseminated to the farmers for broader adaptation.

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Lysimeteric Studies

The Lysimeter is an experimental setup in which soil water relationship are studied under controlled conditions. Lysimeter name derived from a Greek word ‘Lysi’ meaning ‘Water’. There are 12 conventional type lysimeters, each measuring 3m x 3m x 5m. The farmers are applying the water to the crops without knowing the actual crop water requirement. To overcome this problem, the water requirements of the major crops namely wheat, cotton, sugarcane, rice, rapeseed-mustard, chili, sesame and sunflower have been determined through Lysimeter. The results and findings have been published and disseminated to the end users/farmers through farmer’s days.

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Agro Meteorological Station

An agro-meteorological station was established in March 1986 at DRIP. Meteorological parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, pan-evaporation, wind velocity, wind direction, sunshine hours, precipitation, wet and dry bulb temperatures etc. are recorded and compiled on regular basis. Potential or reference evapotranspiration (ETo) are calculated on daily and hourly basis using Modified Penman equation. The data is shared with different research organizations and university students in pursuing their research work for Master or PhD degrees.

Saryab Road Quetta

PCRWR established its Water Resources Research Centre in Quetta is in 1987, whereas its Agricultural Research Station is located at Sariab Road, Quetta. The Agricultural Research Station encompasses 8.34 acres of land. Water resources research is crucial for the Balochistan province as it is the largest province of Pakistan but the smallest in population. It represents the mountainous western fringe of the Indus Valley having arid climate. A few water resources are at the disposal of the area being outside the monsoon belt. The water crisis is becoming increasingly grave over time due to population pressure. The centuries old karezes are drying up due to groundwater mining. PCRWR is conducting research at the farm in terms of trickle irrigation, lysimeters and irrigation scheduling etc. The lysimeteric research station is located on 1 acre, whereas the 2.25 acres are under apple, apricot, pomegranate, almond and grape orchards. The lysimeteric research station comprises of 6 lysimeters. Presently, around 2 acres is under wheat experiments. A fruit nursery has also been established on 0.63 acres land. PCRWR has successfully grown olives at the farm (0.6 acre). Artiplex has been grown on the boundaries to serve as farm boundary. The farm house, road, green house etc. occupies 0.63 acre land.

Lysimeter Station

A set of six (06) no. lysimeters and one (01) observation chamber having circular chambers of concrete comprises 1.08 acre (314’ x 150’) have been constructed under the collaboration of National Drainage Programme where, studies for determination of crop water requirements of the orchards are under progress.

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Merakachuri

PCRWR established a Research & Demonstration (R&D) Centre in 2008 under strengthening Project of WRRC Peshawar comprising land of 12.5 acres to research trials on soil water relationship study water balance and water conservation strategies for Irrigated Agriculture. The Center is located about 5 km away from Ring Road Jamil Chowk toward East North on Phandu Rd.and also about 5 km from tarnab farm Peshawar toward west south.

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Lysimeter Studies

Lysimeter system description:  The world Lysimeter is derived from “lysi” (means water) and meter means measurements. It is a laboratory for measurement of inflow and outflow from soil litho logy for accurate estimating crop evapotranspiration and consisting of soil column in a duly designed concrete chamber within the existing soil profile. Lysimeter is an experimental set-up comprising of soil-filled tank in which research can be conducted very precisely under well controlled conditions on almost all aspects of optimal utilization of surface and ground water resources. It is a basic tool to determine crop water requirement, crop coefficient, groundwater contribution, deep percolation, evapo-transpiration, solute transport and other related aspects of water management and sustainability of agricultural lands.The Lysimeter has two mode of use. In the first mode irrigation water is supplied to the soil surface and in the second mode water is supplied from the bottom part at the desirable depth. Mariette principle is being followed to maintain a constant supplied head at desirable depth. Lysimeter is simply a tank filled with soil in which crops are grown under natural condition to measure the amount of water lost by evaporation and transpiration, and monitoring the change in water storage in Lysimeter along with other components in water balance (e.g. Precipitation, irrigation   and drainage).The actual evapotranspiration rate can be obtained over the measurement interval .Resultant measurement can provide daily evapotranspiration.  Development of Lysimeter In Peshawar valley was not only the need of PCRWR for determination of crop water requirement ,leaching experiment,  hydraulic movement of water in the soil and crop ,soil and water relationship development study. Beside this it will be also helpful   for water management researcher, agriculture engineer, ground water researchers, hydrology and soil science students working in research were the demand of researchers .keeping in view the need and demand 12 Lysimeter of concrete each Lysimeter having size (10’x10’x10’) feet at Mera Kachuri research and demonstration site WRRC Peshawar representing Peshawar valley has been developed which is the pioneer work in KPK specifically at Mira Kachuri.