Author: Abdul Rahman

Categories
Vegetable Gardening

Five Cheap DIY ways to Kill Home and Kitchen Garden Weeds

kitchen garden weeds
Five Cheap DIY ways to Kill Home and Kitchen Garden Weeds

Introduction

“Hey! Rahman, i am managing my own home and a kitchen garden. In addition to fulfill my hobby and getting healthy food items on my dining table, I do this all to save few bucks in my pocket. But the issue of weeds is a piece of headache for me. I am spending a lot on buying herbicides and other chemicals to curb the weeds in my flower beds and kitchen garden. These weeds not only compete with them in nutrient utilization but also impact the plant health. What to do? Is there any cheap way to kill home and kitchen garden weeds?

This is an important issue I hear daily from my subscribers. So, today i decided to write on this. It is common that managing own home or kitchen garden has the chief goal to save money. But if you are spending your income on unforeseen issues like these, then you should have to think out of the box.

In the coming lines, I am going to share my own experience for defeating weeds by using the resources; every home has in daily routine. This means, you don’t need to buy anything special. After reading this post, you will stop purchasing herbicides and getting rid of weeds will become a cinch for you. Here are my top 5 cheap Do–It-Yourself ways to kill home and kitchen garden weeds.

1. The Boiling Hot Water

The first of five cheap DIY ways to kill home and kitchen garden weeds is by using the boiling hot water. Astonished? Well yes, it is the cheapest way on the planet to vanish unwanted weeds growing along with your darling plants. If you have left over water after making tea or coffee, make it count and valuable. Scorching hot water kills the weed immediately. It is a targeted and simple way of getting rid of annual weeds and it is equally effective against perennial weeds also that are short tap rooted.

Boiling Water to Kill Kitchen Garden Weeds

2. Sugar in Your Kitchen Jar

Surprised again! Yes sugar is another dirt-cheap item available in every kitchen shelf that is a perfect substitute for pricey synthetic herbicides. Are you anxious to know the reason why I am recommending sugar as weed killer? Well sugar creates low nitrogen environment for weed plants that results in wilting of plants giving it perishing death. Take sugar as much as you need and grind it firstly so that it can react instantly on the weed. Alternatively, make a sugar mixture using 2 tablespoon of sugar in 400ml of water and spray it on the weed stem and soil around the stem. I recommend to try it must.

Sugar to Curb Weeds from Kitchen Garden

3. Lemon Juice

I bet you are still in shock by reading the first two methods. After spending a lot on chemical herbicides, you got to know now that there are much easier and cheaper ways to control weeds in your home or kitchen garden. Well here is a third cheap DIY way to kill home and kitchen garden weeds. Lemon juice is a natural weed killed if you don’t know earlier. The citric acid is the main killing agent. A spray of lemon juice creates a burning effect on the weed plant and it dies within minutes after application. Another reason which makes it most effective against variety of weeds is that it is also a nightmare for thick, wax or protective coated leaves. It ruptures the coating and kills it. If there are weeds that are still growing, I recommend spraying a solution of vinegar, boiling water and lemon juice on these persistence ones for permanent eradication.

Lemon Juice for Killing Weeds

4. Borax Powder

Another cheap DIY way to kill home and kitchen garden weeds is using borax powder. When mix with the right amount of water makes it a strong homemade herbicide. However, there are few precautionary measures that should be practiced while using Borax. First of all, be sure you don’t spray the beneficial plants with it. Second, avoid saturation of soil with the Borax solution. Lastly great care should be practiced to safeguard your skin from this solution. For optimum results, mix 10 ounces of borax powder in 2.5 gallon of water to make a solution for spraying.

Borax Mixture to Kill Kitchen Garden Weeds

5. Dishwasher Soap

Yes, soap is another safe homemade remedy to kill weeds. The dishwasher soap assists to lessen surface tension on the target weed plant. This allows weed-killer to make a coat on foliage rather getting washed away or drenched into the soil below. Its combination with vinegar and salt adds more strength and results can be witnessed in few hours.

Dishwasher Soap as Weed Killer Agent in Kitchen Garden

Hope these five cheap DIY ways to kill home and kitchen garden weeds will help with your problem of weeds. Otherwise, I am still available for you. If you have any query, feel free to ask.

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, August 09). Five Cheap DIY ways to Kill Home and Kitchen Garden Weeds [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/08/09/five-cheap-diy-ways-to-kill-home-and-kitchen-garden-weeds/[/box]

 

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Agriculture Corner

The Importance of Agriculture

The Importance of Agriculture
The Importance of Agriculture

Introduction

Whenever I am asked about my education and career, I receive almost same decade old comments because of the stereotype image of agriculture. Being a graduate level agriculture instructor, the situation gets more interesting when they ask is there any particular curricula for agricultural studies and what do you teach the students? This is the situation of the country I am residing in i.e. Pakistan, which is one of the biggest agricultural nations of the world with around 70 percent of the population involved directly or indirectly in farming activities and providing 45 percent of the labor force, still the importance of agriculture is not fully understood. And the situation is not different in many other parts of the world including developed countries as discuss with my professional links at various seminars and conferences. 

Agriculture is always underestimated. The fresh entrants in agricultural degree programs are discouraged at every level, at least in Pakistan, again due to stereotype image of agriculture and glamour that is linked to medical and engineering profession. The reason of today’s blog is to encourage new entrants to adopt agriculture and current agricultural graduates to feel pride of being agriculturist by highlighting few lines on the importance of agriculture. 

Technical Aspects of the Importance of Agriculture

In the world of today, the importance of agriculture has increased many folds when the population of the world has hit the 7 billion mark and exploding at an exponential rate. The need of a professional agriculturalist is increasing. The annual growth rate of world population is 1.11 percent in 2017 (worlometer) and following these trends, United Nations has projected that by 2050, the earth will be home of over 9.7 inhabitants. Feeding and supplying fiber to such a mammoth population is not an easy task. Before moving ahead, let me take your attention to the fact that, an agriculturist is a potential global employee, i.e. he/she has a chance to get a job anywhere in the world depending on the abilities, skills and importantly the attitude.

Moving further, the global community has harnessed almost everything what it could get from the famous “green revolution” of 1960’s. Innovation and smartness is the dire need of time to have sustainable food and fiber. Most importantly, the water resources are depleting, so is the organic matter in the soils. This situation demands rigorous research and for that, need of an agriculturist cannot be denied.

Social Aspects of the Importance of Agriculture

Being an agriculture student does not mean that you learn agriculture only. An agricultural graduate is equipped with wide range of knowledge. I am not undermining the importance of any other field of knowledge, but recall and think what you learnt in mathematics or social studies class is applicable to your daily life? Or how much information you learnt in chemistry class is used and helpful in your routine life today? However the knowledge gained in agriculture or its sub domains like horticulture, food technology, agricultural economics, entomology agricultural engineering etc. are not only helpful in daily life but open new and dynamic dimensions of nature in front of you. Agriculture studies also build leadership qualities because of its applied nature and work ethics along with the ability of work in harsh and pressure situations.    

Last but not the least, being a normal human being and consumer, our 80 percent daily requirements is fulfilled by agriculture sector in one way or another. How? What we earn is spent largely on food and clothing. And ask yourself before you survey people around you; do you really bother where it comes from? What is its source? Is it safe to consume? What are the benefits of consuming a certain food type? The answer is definitely NO. Here comes the importance of agriculture. The knowledge of what are you consuming comes when you study agriculture.

Human nature is to fight challenges. Sometimes the challenges are self-created in the form of problems or are natural. Agriculture, being a tough job in the fields helps in learning skills to face the challenges. And once the challenge is fulfilled, the passion about the profession increases many folds. So, the importance of agriculture cannot be denied. The human race depends on it. If all farmers quit growing crops, what would happen? That is why; I believe that basic agricultural courses should be included at intermediate and college level.

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, August 07). The Importance of Agriculture [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/08/07/the-importance-of-agriculture/[/box]

 

Categories
Vegetable Gardening

How to Grow Grapes in Kitchen Garden?

How to Grow Grapes
How to Grow Grapes

Introduction

This article answers how to grow grapes in few easy steps. Grapes are easiest and tastiest fruits to grow and yet most ignored crop especially in home or kitchen garden. Among many, grapes are the most cultivated and liked fruits all over the world. The not only fulfill your desire of having a delicious fruits, but also the scenic beauty they give to your garden is dramatic and unique.

Grapes grow vigorously. Their growing phase is fast. With proper care, especially pruning them timely, results in better growth and development and plant life is increased. A fully grown grape vine can last up to 30 years or more. So it can be a good friend of you if you have it in your garden. It requires very little ground space to grow. The vines can be managed and molded as per desire.    

There are hundreds of varieties of grapes grown around the globe. Some are grown for the purpose of table fruits others are used in dried form. A large production of grapes is used in preparing wine worldwide. Whatever is your purpose to grow grape vines in your garden, make sure you buy the grape vines from a certified nursery. One year old, vigorous plants are best suited for a home or kitchen garden. If possible, try to purchase certified virus free grape vine.

How to Grow Grapes?

To start with how to grow grapes, here are few steps that should be kept in mind to get optimum results.

Planting the Grape Vines

For best results, planting must be carried out in early spring. The temperature required for one year old grape vine is optimum during springs. Make sure you have constructed the trellis before planting to train the vine for the support. This is also necessary to keep the plant free from diseases. Generally, grapes are self-fertile. However, it is wise to ask the nursery owner whether the variety he is providing you needs another plant for pollination or not?

For better results, soak the roots of the freshly purchased grape vine in water for 2-3 hours then plant it into the soil. Grapes need plenty of sunshine. So site selection should be done with great care. A small duration of no sunlight during day won’t hurt. Make sure it gets sun at least in the morning.  The soil should be deep, loose and well drained. Good air circulation soils derive best results.

Next, if you are panting two or more vines in the harden, then there should be a space of 6 – 10 feet between vines. The planting hole should be 12 inch deep and wide. Put the top soil in the hole and fill it 4 inches. Trim off weaker or broken roots. Then place the vine in the hole and fill it 6 inches then tamp down. Fill the remaining hole with soil but don’t tamp this down. Pruning the top back to two or three buds at planting time gets good results during growth of plant. Immediately water the vine after planting. 

Caring the Grape Plant

Next step in how to grow grapes is the caring needed by your newly planted grape vine. Once you all done with planting the grape vine, let it grow. It is wise not to get fruit from it in the first couple of years so that it gets strength to support extra weight of fruit. Pruning is important. This will hamper the rampant growth of vines but the fruit will only be produced by the canes only once. So prune annually especially when vines are dormant during March and April, before the buds start to swell.

During the first year of growth, cut all the buds except 2 or 3. It is also wise to select two strong canes for proper growth and cut the rest canes. As your pant celebrates first year of its planting and enters second year, prune back all canes and just leave 2 buds on each arms. Remove flower clusters as they form.

Fertilizer Usage in Grapes

It is sometime very confusing to choose whether to apply fertilizer to grapes. My recommendation is NEVER give fertilizer to your grape plant especially during first year unless and until your soil is weak. Even in the second year, fertilize the plant VERY lightly. Now the next question is what fertilizer should be applied? I recommend simple answer—MULCH. Organic fertilizer is best for your home garden grapes and even for farm grapes. Mulch not only provides nutrients as they decompose in soil but also keep the soil moist around the vines.

Precautionary Measures and Curing Grape Pest and Diseases

To keep the birds away from destroying your home garden produce, use a mesh net on budding fruits. It is also important to have knowledge about the enemies of your grapes. Aphid and Japanese Beetles are biggest pests while Powdery Mildew and Black Rot are common diseases of grapes. To control Aphid, plain soapy water can be used to remove them by spraying it over the affected parts. For Japanese Beetle, I recommend physical removal if possible. However, if the attack is severe, use permethrin, carbaryl, or malathion. There is no threshold to decide when to use insecticide, however to me, use chemical only if you see there is leaf damage exceeding 15 percent.

For curing Powdery Mildew, use one tablespoon of baking soda and mix it with one teaspoon oil and one teaspoon Castile soap. This mixture is then added to one gallon of water. Now spray the plants once a week. This will not only kill the mold but also it will prevent growth of further disease. Same procedure can be carried out for Black Rot in addition to removing the damaged parts physically.

Black Rot and Powdery Mildew

If your grapes are not ripening, pinch back some foliage so that the fruit get proper sunlight. It should be kept in mind that grapes will not stop ripening once they picked from vine. Grapes can be stored for 6 weeks in a refrigerator/fridge. Use card boxes for storing grapes in a refrigerator/fridge as grapes can easily absorb odour of other items in there. 

 

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, August 05). How to Grow Grapes in Kitchen Garden? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/08/05/how-to-grow-grapes-in-kitchen-garden/[/box]

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Categories
Vegetable Gardening

Kitchen Gardening For Beginners

Kitchen Gardening For Beginners
Kitchen Gardening For Beginners

“I want to spend a life healthy, full of energy in a natural environment and feeding myself and family with fresh organic food”. This is the statement what I come across regularly whenever I meet my friends, neighbors and students. Well I encourage them that yes environment and healthy food are two basic requirements to spend a joyous life. However, in today’s fast pace urban life, I can’t promise to help them in spending a life in healthy environment but yes, getting fresh, healthy and organic food is in their own hands. How? My reply is simple, grow a kitchen garden in backyard of your home or if you are living in an apartment, use your balcony and equip it with pots to grow your own daily use food items. Believe me, kitchen gardening is easier, safer, free of pesticides and chemicals and most importantly it gives of peace of mind and delicious meals.

The next question I come across with is ‘how much space do I need to exercise kitchen gardening?’ Well kitchen gardening doesn’t mean that it should be carried out right outside of your kitchen door. It can be in a balcony of your apartment, or in garden outside your home. You are in middle of making your delicious meal and you ended up with no green chilies in your fridge? No problem – it’s just steps away.

Balcony Kitchen Garden

Location and Soil

The place where you want to establish your kitchen garden should have access to plenty of sunlight and soil that has good draining capacity. If puddles don’t disappear from soil after a good rain, then your soil is not fit for it. After locating a place with strongest sunshine and good draining soil, my recommendation for kitchen gardening beginners is to start small that is easily manageable to allow you to earn experiment in the first season.

How much Space for Kitchen Garden?

To do a simple garden math, if you are a family of four adults, a kitchen garden measuring 800 square feet is enough to feed you annually. This means, 200 square feet per person a year. More generous climate with healthy soil can even grow more however; you should not forget the goal of your kitchen garden that is to have fresh, healthy and delicious meals of your choice whenever you want. So my recommendation, don’t race behind more production especially if you are a beginner and in first year of your kitchen gardening. Don’t forget that chief driving element to grow kitchen garden for a beginner is to have a garden that tastes good.

Kitchen Gardening in Pots

What to Grow in Kitchen Garden?

After solving the space factor, next is what to grow? Well it is rather easy. You know the taste of you family and their liking. But for beginners, I recommend, don’t go for buying expensive seeds. Start with salads like lettuce or may be green chilies and tomatoes. These are the crops that can easily grow and keep you motivated.

Choosing Crops in Kitchen Garden

Choosing the Healthy Seeds or Transplants

Next thing is choosing a seed or transplant? Well it’s totally up to you. Most of us like to use seeds in a fascination to see juicy baby stems coming out of soil. I don’t want to do a recommendation here. But it’s good to have transplants for kitchen gardening beginners. If you have prior and good experience with seeds in your flowering gardens—go for seeds.

Stay Away from Synthetics

As the stem is out of soil, never ever think of adding any pesticide, herbicide or chemical fertilizer. If you do so, the objective of having a kitchen garden will die immediately. Mulch, Mulch and Mulch, that’s the only option for you keep your meals organic. Grass clippings, straw, shredded leaves, pine needles, dead weeds that haven’t gone to seed good source of mulch. Farm yard dung from livestock can also be a good source of organic fertilizer.

Mulching Kitchen Garden

Don’t Die Your Plants of Thirst

Watering the garden is your chief responsibility. Vegetables and fruits are made of water. So they drink a lot of water. Water your kitchen garden as much as they need. Again–draining of soil matters a lot here. If your soil has poor drainage, then you have to be more careful.

Production in Kitchen Garden

Safeguard Your Efforts

Last but not the least; keep an eye on your kitchen garden. Harvest your crop timely or someone else does so. These ‘someone’ may be bacteria and insects as you are growing organic so they have greater opportunity to get their share. And if you ‘someone’ in your kitchen garden includes four legged animals like rabbit or deer, fencing your garden is the best option. If you are growing your kitchen garden in pots, you can use mesh to eradicate any chance damage.

Safeguarding Kitchen Garden

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, July 30). Kitchen Gardening For Beginners [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/07/30/kitchen-gardening-for-beginners/[/box]

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Agriculture Corner

What is Sustainable Agriculture?

what is Sustainable Agriculture?
what is Sustainable Agriculture?

Introduction

Sustainable agriculture is a hot cake that has been debated globally. This is because of its dynamic nature that sometimes it is very hard to declare a particular farming pattern a sustainable one. The diversity in agriculture makes it complex. However, most of the experts have a consensus that a sustainable agriculture model should fulfill 3 important components. These include social, environmental and economic. In the light of this, sustainable agriculture may be defined as a system that produces food, fiber and animals by using such kind of techniques that are protective and does not harm the environment, human health and communities and safeguard animal welfare. Or more precisely, an integrated farming system that fulfills three P’s criteria that are people, planet and profit is regarded as sustainable agriculture.

Here, it is important to mention that organic agriculture and sustainable agriculture are sometimes confused. It should be cleared “Organic” and “sustainable” are not quite synonym to each other. There are still many practices in organic agriculture that do not comply with the sustainable way of farming. Plus there are reservations on organic agriculture that whether this form of farming can sustain large and explosive population of the world? This is mainly due to less production attainable through organic agriculture.

Benefits of Sustainable Agriculture

There are several benefits of sustainable agriculture. First of all this model of farming ensures supply of healthy food. Food determines the health of people. If we are eating healthy food, then our health will be good. A healthy nation is necessary for prosperous and economically stable country. Less monetary resources are needed on health facilities. Time resource is also saved in this manner.

On the other hand, preservation of planet resources is vital in a sustainable agriculture model so that environment is conserved. The resources like organic fertilizers, seed, soil, minerals and water for irrigation etc. should be used economically and optimally. This allows usage of resources in other production processes. Moreover, the resources become less vulnerable to degradation.

Lastly, sustainability in agriculture brings gain in terms of economic profitability. When resources are managed wisely and sustainably, it generates high profits in return. Less expenditure is incurred on inputs thus increasing the margin between cost and revenue and farmer gets fair share in terms of profitability. Financial security is also ensured.

Other benefits of having sustainability in agriculture are the efficient usage of non-renewable resources and increased quality of farm output. Social and economic equity is also earned as income from sustainable agriculture model has positive impact on it. Pest management, crop diversity and water management are few other benefits of sustainable agriculture.

Sustainable Agriculture Examples

There are numerous sustainable agriculture examples. However, I am discussing the two most important of them. One is the permaculture. It is a designed technique of producing food following the principle of “working smarter not harder” to expel waste and to create efficient system of farming. It is implemented by various means like herb spirals, keyhole and mandala gardens, zero tillage growing grain, sheet mulching, thus each plant serving multiple purposes, and creating swales on contour to hold water high on the landscape.
Another renowned sustainable agriculture example is the hydroponics. Better known today as the 21st century agriculture, in hydroponic model, crop is cultivated in such a manner that the roots of the plants are directly submerge in a mineral solution or precisely the roots are in an inert medium like gravel or perlite. This form of sustainable agriculture is practicable at both small and large scale. The most important aspect of hydroponic is that the crops are grown in a controlled environment. So the risk of contamination and usage of inorganic pesticide and fertilizer is none or minimized.

Importance of Sustainable Agriculture

No one can deny importance of sustainable agriculture in the 21st century. It is the most trusted way of protecting the soil and increasing its fertility. It aids in achieving integration of natural biological cycles and controls them accordingly. Importance of sustainable agriculture can also be observed from the fact that it also improves the organizational use of on-farm resources and helps in reducing dependence on non-renewable resources and other purchased inputs. Livelihoods of the farmers are enhanced along with elevated harmony among the faring community.

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, July 26). What is Sustainable Agriculture [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/07/26/what-is-sustainable-agriculture/[/box]

Categories
Agriculture Corner

What is Arid or Dryland Agriculture?

What is Arid or Dryland agriculture?
What is Arid or Dryland agriculture?

Arid agriculture or dry land agriculture is used quite often universally. However, these are poorly defined and understood. The word ‘Arid” is used for an area that is characterized by low volume of rainfall i.e. less than 10 inches of rain fall per annum. Arid agriculture is sometimes referred to as dry land agriculture. From farming perspective, arid agriculture has great importance. This is mainly because most of the regions in the world are Arid, where agricultural system lack irrigation facilities. More precisely, arid agriculture refers to as the cultivation of crops where irrigation facilities are absent and evaporation of moisture from soil exceeds rainfall.

It is interesting that rain fed agriculture and arid agriculture are sometimes consider same and used interchangeably. However, there lies massive difference between the two. Rain fed agriculture includes the arid or dryland agriculture. But arid agriculture is generally defined as growing of crops where lack of availability of moisture hampers the crop production to part of the year.

A study of world atlas shows that large chunk of the earth is arid. So, arid agriculture is adept in many parts of the globe. The countries in the Middle East, South America, the steppe lands of Eurasia, major part of Australia and southern and southwestern parts of United States bear arid climate. The weather conditions are harsh with high temperature and less availability of water. Rainfall is sporadic in arid areas. This causes flash floods when it happens because dry climate of arid areas makes the soil tough and compact that it cannot easily absorb rain water. Thus flood occurs. On the other hand, the organic matter in the soils of arid regions is low resultantly the fertility of the soil is affected. Soil erosion is a common problem in arid agriculture.

Despite of all these facts, the mankind has developed technologies to cope and sustain under harsh climate of arid nature. Arid agriculture has economic importance because if no cropping is practice in these areas, then more pressure will be exerted on other limited productive parts of the world that will eventually result in food insecurity situation. So, arid agriculture or dryland agriculture cannot be neglected of its harsh environment.

There are ways in which arid agriculture can be made productive by altering farming practices and adapting smart water conservation technologies. Mulching, growing trees at farm borders, constructing small dams, leveling the farm land, growing heat tolerant crops, avoiding formation of hard crust on soil surface, growing small structured variety of crops to minimize transpiration, usage of smart irrigation strategies like drip, furrow or sprinkler etc. are few practical ways that can ensure sustainable arid agriculture in any part of the world.

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, July 30). What is Arid or Dryland Agriculture? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/07/23/what-is-arid-or-dryland-agriculture/ [/box]

 

Categories
Career in Agriculture

Why Choose Agriculture as Career?

Agriculture as Career
Agriculture as Career

Introduction

What kind of career should I choose? Should I pick it according to the societal customs or traditions? Or go with the one that satisfy by hobbies and interests? Should I choose agriculture as career? It would not be a surprise if you say a straight NO.

Do you want to become a farmer? Is that what you studied for? Do you want to opt an archaic lifestyle? What would your relatives say? You bought up in a city; do you want to work in the fields?

These were the few questions that I faced when I decided to study agriculture as a subject after my college. The most disturbing one was what would be the opinion of my family and relatives? A typical question faced by youth perusing agriculture as his/her career in third world countries like Pakistan. The situation is tougher for females in addition to the queries raised earlier.

However, after more than a decade experience with agriculture and its allied studies, I find agriculture as a profession that provides youth with viable and sustainable options to learn and earn for satisfactory livelihood. For a country like Pakistan, where 70 percent of the population is engaged directly or indirectly with agricultural activities, this sector has a share of 42.3 percent in employment in the country (Economic Survey, 2016), choosing agriculture as career for Pakistani youth is surely a viable option and here I am going to give 5 best reasons why to choose agriculture as a career?

1. Population is Increasing

Population is increasing so as the feeding mouths. We have touched the figure of 7 billion population globally. Feeding such a mammoth population is not an easy task. The green revolution of 60’s in agriculture is an old story. Now we need a new revolution in food nutrition and balanced diet. Agricultural graduates equipped with knowledge of Plant breeding and genetics and food technology and dietetics are needed more than ever now.

2. Agriculture as a Poverty Fighter

Agriculture has proved a great driver to combat poverty. Agriculture as a career is more promising than any other sector in this regard. It requires less investment to start for earning a dignified livelihood both in rural and urban setups. It is also a source of food security. So if you are food secure, then you have additional monetary resources to invest anywhere else in more productive ways.

3. Less Awareness about Agriculture as a Career

Not only in Pakistan, but in many third world countries, there is always room for more agriculturists to come in and fill the job spaces. But that doesn’t mean that you will get a job for sure. Make yourself competitive in the agriculture job market, and you will get success.

4. Agriculture Engineering

Though there is a lot of acceptance for engineers in various fields in the country, less attention has been paid in promoting agricultural engineering. The importance of agri. engineering increases many folds for the countries that are arid in nature. Farmers in arid environments require unique and innovative implements and structures to have sustainable agricultural production. More importantly, an agricultural graduate with specialization in engineering can use ENGINEER as a prefix with his name.

5. Extension Services

Extension department is another negligent sector that requires immediate attention. The climate of globe is changing. Famers require more that “tips” from an extension worker. They need timely update about forecast and new crop varieties. So there is a huge scope of agriculture extension worldwide.

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, July 23). Why Choose Agriculture as Career? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/07/23/why-choose-agriculture-as-career/[/box]