Human resource is undoubtedly the backbone of our industry business. With sound farming knowledge, distinctive agronomic strategies and modern machinery, our people help us building highly efficient and eco-friendly farms with higher yields. Our innovative farming techniques have also led us to build the capacity of existing farmers resulting in improved and reliable cane supply to JDW.
JDW believes in investing in our future by undertaking large scale research and development activities such as:-
Large scale farming operations cannot be managed effectively without mechanization. We have managed to acquire latest tractors and other farming equipment’s from local as well as foreign sources. In addition to that, we have rationalized farm layouts and combined the traditional farming techniques with newly acquired technologies to achieve maximum yield in the region. Few of our mechanized operations are given below:-
Precision Agriculture (PA) is the act of managing different land variables using latest technology such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS) and Yield Mapping. Adoption of PA practices can improve the efficiency and profitability of farming operations to a great extent. Under the supervision of foreign consultants, our engineering team is making full use of these techniques to achieve higher yield at lower costs.
Designing and fabrication of bed de-generator at site workshop is now ready to work in the fields. This will create revolution in term of time and energy saving in offset and seed bed operations. Replacement of rotary hoe will stop deterioration of soil structure which leads to improve soil by maintaining soil porosity, water holding capacity, soil drainage and reduction of surface sealing.
Promising Sugarcane varieties play an important role in crop improvement and sustainable farming. We are progressing with some good sugarcane varietal lines at JDW Research farm. These lines have been selected in 2022-23 from J16 and J19 nurseries which were produced from JDW sugarcane breeding station located at Thatha. These are early maturing and high yielding varieties. These varieties have shown disease resistance in various research trials at JDW research farm.
At this stage, these varieties are under seed multiplication process at JDW corporate farms. These have been planted on different soil types for adoptive trials in 2023. More qualitative and quantitative data will be taken to see their adoptability on larger fields. Further sugarcane seedlings have been produced every year through breeding of selected parents. We are utilizing both local and foreign germplasm in breeding having good traits
Production of disease free seed for corporate farms and local growers and Production of certified seed (Disease free seed playing vital role in sugar industry).
Recent tests revealed ratoon stunting disease (RSD) and White leaf disease (WLD) is found common in commercial cultivars of the area. In this scenario, seed certification is important to keep sustain cane production through these locally adopted cultivars. Hot water treatment of the seed is the only solution to minimize the impact of above mentioned diseases. JDW have constructed large heat treatment facilities at each mill and seed treatment has been done successfully. Disease free seed nurseries have been established at JDW corporate farms. This is a continuous process. We are doing hot water treatment every year and keep building the healthy seed nurseries at our farms. This practice is very important to keep the disease pressure under economic threshold level.
Creeping weeds like morning glory and twine vine are giving serious problem among farms. These weeds are introduced around flood areas around Indus river bank in 2010. A serious efforts of herbicide trials are underway to control and check the further spread of these weeds. JDW is making long and short term strategies which are at final stage.
Traditionally, aerial spraying of pesticides has been done using conventional fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters with a pilot onboard. However, this is changing. Small, remotely piloted aircraft are being used to apply pesticides around the world.
Drone sprayers will never replace ground or conventional aerial application technology, but they may complement existing spray practices. The future of drone spraying will be mainly affected by the crop height, timeliness and field condition in post rain and irrigation (i.e., which option may get the job done in the shortest time, desiccating high temperature may reduce the adhesiveness being small droplets from drone), the type of spraying to be done (insecticide or herbicide, use of water volume etc), and availability of local companies offering drone spraying.
JDW corporate farms also introduced drone spray to sugarcane crop especially when crop height hinders in traditional method of spray through tractors. Post rain or just after irrigation drone spray is being carried out when traditional way of spraying is impossible being wet field.
Hot water treatment is primarily required to ensure disease free seed for farms. Small portable HWT plant was setup in 2014 under crop improvement (R&D), new portable setup was imported and HWT started in 2016-17. Fixed hot water treatment plants of bigger capacities are now constructed at unit I and DSM. These plants are now in operation.
JDW has always emphasized on improving irrigation efficiency in the region. Over the years, irrigation using poor quality tube well water has led to serious soiled gradation that resulted in loss of yield. At JDW, all ground water sources are constantly tested in the laboratory to ensure that suitable water is supplied to crops. The farms are designed using latest laser levelling technology to ensure improved irrigation, at reduced costs and increasing yield potential. In recent times, addition of flow-meters on irrigation sources started to quantify the efficiency of irrigation. In addition, early hill up technique is developed to conserve moisture which leads to improve water use efficiency.
JDW has adopted the use of mechanical harvesters and prime mover cane transport systems for harvesting and transporting cane from farm to mill on timely basis. This saves a lot of harvesting and transportation costs and crucial cane nutrition. JDW currently operates 16 harvesters and has the capacity to mechanically harvest over 450,000/- tonnes of cane over 13,000/- acres per season. The mechanical harvest and transport system continues to evolve into a world class operation as efficiencies improve with new innovations, improved infrastructure and improved farm designs.
Cane production is affected by both harvesting and field issues which can impact on sugar quality and quantity. Both harvesting efficiency and crop presentation affect cane yield, cane quality and ratooning. Foreign consultants are working with JDW and have developed Harvesting Best Practice (HBP) guidelines to reduce cane loss, improve cane quality, and reduce stool damage. The HBP guidelines also focus on the impact that crop presentation has on harvesting efficiency. Information available covers topics such as farming for efficient harvesting; the effect of extractor fan speed on cane loss, crop yield, Commercial Cane Sugar (CCS), reduction in base cutter/chopper losses; and improvement in billet quality for planting.
