Baluchistan

Baluchistan – yielding fruit ? By Mazhar M. Chinoy Baluchistan represents nearly 44% of Pakistan's landmass, and one of its most varying landscape, displaying the most barren of mountains to snow-clad hills, from its famed Juniper forests to the and searing deserts to stretches of a virgin, breezy coast. The climate is also divergent, ranging from the tropical heat of the coastal south to the cool climes of the north. These features are customised to suit a wide range of fruits - from the signature highland-grown Baluchi apples, apricots, peaches and plums to pistachios, figs, dates, cherries and pomegranates, this province unassumingly generates some 75% of the country's produce of these fruits. Many fruits are grown on the coastal region of the province as well. These include banana, chikoo, guava and even coconuts. A speciality of this area, specific to Mekran are nearly a 100 different type of dates - rated as one of the best of quality world produce At an estimate, the varying topography and climate allows for nearly 1 million tons of nearly 30 different types of fruits to be cultivated on some 160,000 hectares. But there should be no pride in these numbers which fall far short of the tremendous potential of this territory. The province is up against imposing odds which inhibit the optimising of produce numbers. Modes of fruit husbandry are poor and archaic. Fertiliser and seed inputs suffer from under-developed and out-of-focus supply infrastructures and relatively higher prices, both in the public and private domain. Minimal fruit grading, packaging and processing facilities encourage erratic fruit quality provisions and wastage. Inadequate and untrained manpower completes the sorry picture for the province that is dubbed as the fruit basket of Pakistan The situation can be turned around. With water a precious resource in Baluchistan and most pernennial sources already satiated, practices such as drip irrigation can regulate water utilization and transform unnecessary wastage into more avails for more cropping. Increased differentiation into crops like saffron, strawberries, sunflower and even vegetable seeds ideally placed to thrive in Baluchistan's climate can widen the crop base of the province. These measures would have to form part of a broader integrated crop management framework to work with updated crop husbandry practices, bringing in qualified human resource on board and ensuring of quality & timely agricultural inputs. Clearly, with its inaccessibility and land diversity, Baluchistan has the typical characteristics of mountain agriculture; and yet, its agricultural

design is shaped on the pattern of plains agriculture - a basic flaw which needs to be revisited. Balanced nutrition (Nitrogen, Phosphates and Potash in their correct, recommended portions) and fertilisation of orchards is critical to ensure premium quality of produce to gel well with international requirements of quality, and exploit the true potential for export. Shades of the past glory of Baluchistan as an agricultural hub as old as human history can still be witnessed in the Mehrgarh (Sibi) ruins of a lost civilisation. This repute of a distant past waits to be reborn