PASSIVE SOLAR GREENHOUSE FARMING GAINING POPULARITY IN HIGH ALTITUDE AREAS OF CHITRAL
CHITRAL: Greenhouse farming is becoming popular amongst the farmers in the higher altitudes of Chitral where extreme weather condition has limited the sowing and growing season to three to four months of the year.
Sardarz Khan, a farmer setting up a greenhouse in Rabat village in Khot valley, told Express Tribune that it was a marvelous experience for him to grow vegetables around the year inside it specially during the winter season when the temperature drops to freezing point.
He said that the greenhouse farming has greatly enhanced his household income as he earns continuously throughout the year by selling the fresh vegetables to his villagers apart from saving his own money which he spent on purchasing them.
As a retired person from government service, he used to go to the down country to seek employment there during the winter season to supplement his income but within the last two years, he did not go there due to his engagement in the greenhouse.
He said that the greenhouse was built for him by Aga Khan Rural Support Programme under its Central Asian Poverty Programme two years ago which has significantly changed the economic condition of his life as through the traditional farming, he did not earn enough to support his family.
Mr. Khan said that after being encouraged by my experience of the greenhouse farming, he was planning to construct more greenhouses in his farm and expand the base of his agro-business using his earlier earnings.
He said that inside his greenhouse, he grows seedlings of tomato, onion and chilly on commercial scale during the winter season which he sells by the end of March while before it, the seedlings were brought here from Chitral city on high cost.
He said that with the passage of time, the number of greenhouses is increasing in the areas where single crops are grown due to the intense cold weather due to which the income of the farmers is very low.
