Sugarcane varieties

Pakistan has a large number of sugar mills which use locally grown sugarcane. Some portion of the crop is also used for the production of jaggery (gur), especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Pakistan is the fifth largest sugarcane producing country in the world. However, the average yield is far less than its potential due to various reasons. Water shortage and climatic change have posed serious threat to the sugarcane production. To combat these challenges and enhance production, it is necessary to step up research and evolve new varieties that can give high yield while simultaneously requiring less water to complete the growth cycle.At present, the area under sugarcane cultivation is rapidly reducing due to water shortage, marketing issues and the encouragement of other cash crops by the government. Only in Punjab, the area under sugarcane cultivation has decreased 27 percent during this year. Keeping in view the importance of the sugarcane crop, there is a strong need that the government evolves new high-yielding varieties under different agro-ecological zones to ensure that crop production is not negatively affected.Khan FarazHayatabad

from The News International - Newspost http://bit.ly/2sZpD9b