63 The International Asian Research Journal 02(04): pp.63-67, 2014 ISSN: 2310-337X ©TIARJ Publications, 2014 www.tiarj.com Sub-optimal Seed Rate: an Important Reason of Low Sugarcane Yield in Pakistan * Farrakh Ameen, Asif Sajjad, Arif Hamid Makhdum and Asad Imran Sustainable Agriculture Programme, World Wide Fund for Nature, Pakistan. ABSTRACT: Low seed rate is considered as one of the most important factors responsible for the decreased sugarcane yield in Pakistan. Low level of farmers’ knowledge is considered to be the main reason. However, the empirical evidences in this regard are very rare. The purpose of this study was to assess and give empirical evidences of farmers’ knowledge and their trend of seed rate usage in sugarcane cultivation. Fifty six percent respondent farmers did not know the recommended seed rate instead they knew it in terms of area specified for seed production (Merla). None of the farmers weighed seed before sowing. The actual average seed rate was significantly (p=0.05) less (28%) than recommended (100 Maunds/acre). This is an important reason of low sugarcane yield in Pakistan. Therefore, there is a dire need of giving more emphasis on optimal seed rates in our existing extension systems. Keyword: Seed rate, Sugarcane, Yield, Farmers Knowledge. I. INTRODUCTION Sugarcane is cultivated on an area of 1.1 million hectares in Pakistan with a total production of 54.7 million ton. It contributes 0.8% to GDP and 3.6% to value added in agriculture (GOP, 2010). Average yield of Sugarcane is 54.8 tons against the world average of 70.54 tons per hectare (FAO, 2012). Regardless of pronounced developments in sugarcane research and expansion in sugar industry, farmers often obtain 10-20% less yield (ca. 55 tons/hectare) than researchers (100-150 tons/hectare) (Javed, 1996; Akhtar et al., 2003; Yaseen et al., 2005), although both use the same technology. This is might be due to management differences. Several factors predict cane yield at farmers’ field i.e. low yielding varieties, high weed infestation, improper time of planting, water availability, insect pests damage to the crop and imbalanced plant nutrition (Akhtar and Akhtar, 2002; Arain et al., 2011). Improper row spacing, seeding density and farmers’ knowledge have also been regarded as the most critical factors predicting sugarcane yield in Pakistan (Alverez and Rohrmann, 1985; Bashir et al., 2000; Mahmood et al., 2005). Although cane cultivation needs site specific agronomic practices, the general recommendations (according to the Agriculture Department of Punjab, Pakistan) of optimum seed rate include 80- 100 maunds/acre for thin varieties or 60,000 buds/acre. Several authors (Muhammad et al., 2001; Majid, 2001; Naeem et al., 2007) have reported low seed rate as one of the most important factor responsible for the decreased yield of * Corresponding Author : Farrakh Ameen, Senior Project Officer, World Wide Fund for Nature, Pakistan.