Jalandhar: Adopting the Pakistani pattern of maize cultivation has proved a boon for Punjab state farmers as they have doubled their crop production after switching over to neighbouring country's style of sowing.

In Pakistan, farmers sow the crop from east to west with the heaps at a distance of 24-27 inches and the plant distance of about 7-8 inch, as the technical belief is that if south slope gets maximum sunlight then the production is better, a farmer of the state said while explaining the detail of Pakistani method of cultivation.

The idea of new pattern of cultivation came in the mind of farmer Pawanjot Singh of Doaba region of the state when he went to Pakistan in June 2004 and learnt the method of growing maize that had made the Pakistani farmers ahead of their Indian counterparts in the crop's production.

After noting down the technical details of the pattern, Pawantjot, a BSc Graduate, implemented the technique in his fields and has registered almost the double produce last year.

He said that in the traditional method of cultivating maize, farmers do not take care of direction of the sowing the seeds but in Pakistan the farmers were very particular as far as direction was concerned.

Another farmer of the region, Hardev Singh Sangha, who adopted the same pattern, claimed that new technique has virtually proved "magic" for him as his harvest of the maize crop has increased from 15 quintal per hectare to about plus 30 quintal per hectare in the last two years.
Source : PTI