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 has over the preceding one decade yielded stunning results.
What is noteworthy is the pest-free potato production for supply to
farmers to substitute potato-seed import that has been going on for a long
time. It has come to the fore that potato-cultivation is a success story in the
uplands ranging from 9000 feet and above for the pest-free production. This
underscores the importance of giving a genuine boost to ‘mountain agriculture’
in the Northern Areas, not simply for benefitting the respective communities of
the region, but to sustain agricultural economy in the rest of the country.
Although efforts remain underway for weaning farmers in rural areas
of the North on to cultivating potato in substitution for traditional cropping,
efforts are required to achieve maximum potato-cultivation targets in the
region.
This should be in addition to maximizing and popularizing mountain
farming technology in the region at subsidized rates and by offering incentives
to ‘subsistence farming’. The yardstick of loaning by the Agricultural
Development Bank of Pakistan remains the same as in vogue in the rest of the
country.
This indeed, is an imprudent step to equate the land here with that
of the plains. For instance, the maximum land hypothecation needed for a
tractor loan here is put at around 40 kanals which is unjust. Instead, it is
required to be further reduced to enable the mountain-farmers to have access to
such a loan facility in an unhindered manner. These farmers are also required
to be offered incentives for mechanization as well.
Again referring to the potato cultivation, it is to be pointed out
that by now it has assumed the status of a ‘cash-crop’ in this region with an
average farmer earning around Rs 100,000 per annum provided an unhindered marketing
takes place. Potato cultivation, initially got popularized in the ‘Upper Hunza
Valley’. The tangible results achieved there attracted other communities to
take to the same cropping instead of the traditional ones. The result is that
potato cultivation is gaining popularity in all the tracts like Bagrote,
Haramosh, Astore, Ghizar, Diamir and the whole of Baltistan with fruitful
results.
The construction of ‘three tourists roads’ across the Northern Areas
would undoubtedly bring about more accessibility to marketing and more people
would benefit from their agrarian produce. Though potato cultivation is rife in
the lowlands here, it is not that much pest-free. Once one gets used to the potato
of the uplands, he would certainly develop a taste for the same.
According to the statistics for the year 2001-2002, potato produce
touched 670 ton mark. The income generated thus was staggering a billion and a
half, while the income accruing during the year 1999 was merely Rs 2.8 million.
Researchers hold the view that the potato produce is singularly pest-free one
in the world for being used as seed and a switch-over to mountain-farming
technology would redouble the produce.
Meanwhile a number of ‘storage houses’ at places like Gilgit,
Skardu, Ghizar, Chilas and Gojal have been established and agriculture
complexes are being built at Skardu, Ghizar and chilas which would help
boosting the mountain farming in the region.
According to an estimate, potato cultivation across the country is
carried over an area of 100,000 hectare (2.0 million kanals) for which 3.0
million tons of seed is needed. Since the potato produce in the plains is often
pest-laden, the government was constrained to spend Rs2 billion in foreign
exchange on the import of potato seed from Holland every year. This was
regardless of the fact that the imported potato were not absolutely pest-free
either.
There can be no denying the fact that livestock breeding and
mountain agriculture inexorably work in tandem in the life of the
mountain-folk. Given this, paying heeds to one while discarding the other
cannot bring about socio-economic change.
Comments