Window to Gilgit-Baltistan

‘Seabuck thorn’   -   Magic plant of Gilgit-Baltistan (Published in The Nation dated September 11, 2002) Syed Shams ud Din Nature has endowed Pakistan with vast resources and ‘seabuck thorn’ is indeed, one of them. For its stupendous ingredients, it is considered an elixir. This plant is found in abundance throughout Gilgit-Baltistan, hence its popularity and maximal growth on scientific lines can work wonders in eradicating poverty from the region. Following its fruitful experimentation, the neighboring China and Russia have reportedly converted all the natural growth areas of ‘seabuck thorn’ into nurseries spreading over thousands   of acres of land. China got it planted on a large scale in certain backward regions some three decades knack that helped catapult them economically to unimaginable heights. The stupendous characteristics associated with this plant lately prompted   the western countries like Finland, Belgium, Germany and Sweden to und...

Mountain farming in Northern Areas  (published in DAWN Economic and Business Review September 30-October 6, 2002) By Syed Shams ud Din The nature has been bounteous to the North and its munificence is everywhere in this region: be it the gigantic water towers, sky-scrapping peaks, abundant mineral wealth, or azure lakes. To top it all is the potential of its soil that according to the latest researches offers immense prospects of ‘mountain agriculture’ that could bring about an amazing socio-economic transformation. However, pessimistic views are available saying that the Northern Areas offer little for agricultural economy because of aridity as well as the scarcity of land. True, that per capita land holding in the area is quite negligible as compared to elsewhere in the plains but these scarce landholdings also offer prospects reckoned to be far more than those in the latter. This gets buttressed in the successful experimentation of potato in these areas which ha...