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Among developing countries Pakistan has highest demand of sugar i.e., 25 kg per capita per annum. Cane and beet are two major sources of sugar production in Pakistan. Sugarcane production in the country could meet only 75% demand of existing sugar mills. Present study looks into the prospects of sugar beet production especially in water scarce areas to bridge the demand gap and scrutinize the issues and constraints in commercial production of sugar beet. Trends were analyzed using existing published statistics. Water requirement of sugarcane is almost three-fold of the sugar beet. Sugar beet will not put pressure on water resources if cultivated on commercial scale. The government is in favor of beet sugar but sugarcane mill owners are reluctant to encourage sugar beet cultivation due to some technical barrier. Beet growing experiment at different sites of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Sindh have revealed encouraging results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water conservation technologies especially, High Efficiency Irrigation Systems (HEIS) remained unpopular due to absence of service sector for these technologies despite of the efforts being carried out since long. Therefore, a training component to prepare a cadre was included in the USDA funded 'Watershed Rehabilitation' project being implemented in collaboration with ICARDA and other NARS partners. The prime objective of these training programmes was to impart training based skills on water conservation technologies. To help in improving the effectiveness, the socioeconomic backup for assessment of these trainings was included as part of the activity. The information for paper is collected from opinions of the participants before and after the training. Descriptive analysis alongwith paired 't' test was used to measure the effectiveness of training. Results indicated higher satisfactory level as majority of the participants were strongly agreed (73%) and agreed (23%) that trainings were participatory and skill development oriented and as 96% agreed or strongly agreed that these were helpful in starting the business as assessment of agriculture service providers (ASPs). It can be concluded that the necessary condition has been fulfilled for water conservation. However, for assessing the impact of these skills towards water conservation technologies needs to be investigated in short and long term scenarios. Therefore, for fulfilling the sufficient condition realizing the real benefits from these trained ASPs further follow up by the concerned technical institutes is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was conducted to get insight about farmers' intention towards adoption of micro catchments as a useful tool for rainwater harvesting. The assessment of acceptability and compatibility of the intervention through farmers' perceptions, feed-back, practices and intentions regarding up-scaling the technology would develop the up-scaling and sustainability options for wider area. Under Watershed Rehabilitation and Irrigation Improvement Project besides other technologies, rainwater harvesting through micro catch-ments were demonstrated by Soil and Water Conservation Research Institute (SWCRI) in Pothwar area, Pakistan. The results highlight that the technology is not only suitable for in situ water conservation for fruit plants but also cost effective, water, labor and resource saving along with farmer friendly under rainfed condition with scare supplemental water availability. The cost of adoption of technology including labor charges for its preparation and maintenance was recovered from irrigation cost saved from single rainfall at the demonstration site. One of the important implications drawn in this regard was the need of a shift from site development to skill development. The same was derived as an important recommendation during assessment and evaluation of different demonstration and dissemination activities being conducted under Watershed Project. This shift could catalyze the technology adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]