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