By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: To streamline the sector of agriculture on modern lines thereby increasing the per capita income of the farmers, a project of innovation has been worked out and sent to the higher authorities by agriculture department costing Rs. 202 million.
The agriculture officer Shehzad Ayub told Chitral Times here on Thursday that situated in the temperate zone, Chitral was best suited for the production of dozens of types of fruits out of which many can be easily developed to export quality but the existing position is too dismal for description.
He said that the obsolete and centuries-old farming techniques are in use in Chitral with the result that they derived very less dividend from their agricultural activities and they lacked know-how in different fields ranging from planting, cultivation to harvesting and marketing.
Mr. Ayub said that the enormity of the area of Chitral was the major obstacle which impeded its efficiency which formed one-fifth of the total area of the province spreading over an area of about 15 thousand square kilometers and remaining within its usual budgets, it was not possible to visit the whole valley once in a year.
“At first, the outlook of the farmers towards agriculture needs to be changed who must be convinced that the farming can be developed to a full-fledged profession by which he can earn substantial amount of money to satiate his needs in the broad spectrum of life.
The land holdings of the individuals are quite large to carry out the farming activities which can engage a good fraction of the unemployed youth who wandered from pillar to post in search of service.
As per design of the proposed project, the activities of establishment of new fruit orchards and improvement of existing ones, provision of spray pumps and pruning tool kits, establishment of vegetable plots, training of farmers in production technologies and their exposure visit to the other districts and provinces will be some of the major activities”, he said.
He said that there were many valleys in the district where potato was being cultivated on commercial scale but the practice is not imitated in other areas which are more or equally congenial for it and such was the state with different breeds of the agricultural products.
“Under the project, experimentation of cereal crops and fruits will be carried out in different climatic zones of the district in which it is divided because a great degree of variation of altitude is found where the southernmost village Arandu is 1073 feet above sea level but the altitude of Baroghil in the northernmost corner is 12461 feet.
All the thirty six valleys of Chitral, segregated from each other, have their own geographical peculiarities best suited for different crops and fruits based on its temperature and climate and once the specialty of an area is assessed in practical terms, the farmers will switch over to the particular types in the given area.
There is shortage of irrigation water in different areas of Chitral and it is through experimentation that special varieties requiring less moisture and greater endurance can be found and introduced in such areas.
There are a number of area where off-season vegetable production is possible under natural condition which will save the local people from the high costs of vegetable which are brought from the down districts of the country”, he said.
At the end of the project, the per acre yield will register a tangible rise and with that the income of the farmers will surge to a height where poverty will have to space to continue any more, he said.
