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Vegetable Production in the Highland of Balochistan

by Nisar Ali Shah, Social Sciences Institute, NARC Islamabad

Highland Balochistan is located in the north central part of the province. It has a continental semi-arid climate with hot summers and cold winters. The most limiting factor for crop production in rain-fed areas of the highlands is the low rainfall and its skewed distribution both in terms of time and space. Annual rainfall ranges from 175 to 200 mm in the southern districts of Khuzdar, Mastung and Kalat and from 300 to 350 mm in the northern districts of Loralai, Killa Saifullah, Pishin and Zhob. Crop production in non-irrigated areas is totally dependent on rainfall while the main source of irrigation water in the valley floor is tube-wells, karezes and mountains springs. Fruit orchards and vegetables are the major cash crops growing of irrigated lands. Vegetables not only provide protein, vitamins, carbohydrates and roughages to human diet as a nutrition source but are also important source of farm income. Its protein production is higher than that of the other cereal crops. Nevertheless, the per acre yield is low mainly because of non-availability of quality seed of high yielding varieties and proper marketing mechanism. Vegetable crops have the potential to become attractive enterprise if proper attention is given to develop production and marketing infrastructure. Commercial vegetable growing gives immediate return to growers therefore it occupies important position in the economy of the country. In Balochistan, especially in the highlands due to peculiar type of climate, vegetable growing is being promoting by the farmers. The area under vegetables production has been increasing and at present, vegetable cultivation is being considered as "prosper farming". 

Highlands of Balochistan are the largest producers of vegetables with an upward trend. During 2002 - 03 area under vegetables has steadily increased from 13359 to 14026 hectares and production has also risen from 144741 tons to 173683 tons. The area was increased by 5 % while production increased by 20 %. In the highlands, the total area under vegetables in 2003 was 14026 hectares producing 17383 tons of vegetable, thus contributing 62.90 and 70.43 percent in both area and production of vegetables in the province. This was due to that scarcity of water for fruit irrigation change in the trend from orchards towards vegetable growing. Farmers preferred to invest in vegetable growing rather orchards for an early return. Moreover, the orchards in the highlands were facing water scarcity problem and becoming dry. Therefore, planting new orchards is now a risky business due to less sustainable source of irrigation. In 2001 drought has caused 57 % fruit production losses and 23 % fruit plants were uprooted due to water shortage in highland areas of Balochistan. Highland is divided into two parts i.e. Southern highland Balochistan (SHB), which comprise the areas located in the south of Quetta city and Northern highland Balochistan (NHB) comprise the areas located in the north of Quetta city. In SHB Mastung, Kalat and Khuzdar districts, while in NHB Pishin, Killa-Abdullah, Killa-Saifullah, Loralai and Zhob are more famous for vegetable cultivation. The major vegetables grown in highland Balochistan are tomatoes, okra, tinda, brinjal, and bitter guard, bottle guard, pumpkin, luffa, broad bean, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, peas, radish, spinach, turnip, onion, potatoes and chilies are important for their high return. Most of the vegetable are showing increasing trend both in area and production, while some vegetables like potatoes, chilies, cabbage are showing decreasing trends due to risk of diseases and pests. Broome Rape locally called as "Soz Gull"and botanically called as 'Orobanchaceae' in tomato, potatoes and other vegetables caused huge losses to farmers. The effect of diseases, insects pests and water stress are worsening with the passage of time. Moreover, non-availability of quality vegetable seeds is another factor causing yield losses, because most of the vegetable seeds are imported by seed merchants without any quality testing carrying seed born pathogens and viruses. So, the farmers of the area are suffering tremendous yield and financial losses. 

Agricultural Economists from Technology Transfer Institute, PARC, Quetta conducted this research. Major sources of income of the respondents were vegetable growing (52%) followed by cereal crops (19%), fruits (16%), livestock (2%) and the remaining 11% were from off-farm sources. Moreover, at risk sustainability in water supply for irrigating orchards also compelled them to bring more area under vegetables rather than planting new orchards. In the Northern highland Balochistan, the important vegetable and cash crops replacing orchards were tobacco, onion, carrot, while in Southern highland Balochistan mainly wheat, barley, onion, potato and even cotton were the crops replacing orchards. Water availability for irrigation purpose has been decreasing with the passage of time, mainly due to the scarcity of irrigation water and persistent drought. Highland Balochistan has good conditions that are ideal for vegetable production but the productivity is low due to lack of choice of varieties, healthy seed, technical know-how, fertilization, plant protection measures and proper marketing. This causes financial and yields losses to the farmers due to low productivity. Expensive input raise the cost of production on the other hand prices of the output are not increasing correspondingly. Highly flexible prices of vegetable cause price decline, which discourage the farmers of the area. Effective extension coverage is lacking to enable farmers to reap the potential yields of vegetable crops by using recommended inputs and production practices. 

Vegetables give higher net revenues than others crops in the area due to low costs of production and high prices of output. Vegetable crops have the potential to become attractive enterprise if proper attention is given to irrigation water, save the rain run-off water through the construction of small dams throughout the province especially in highlands of the province to raise the underground water table. Moreover, the indiscriminate installation of tubewell needs to be restricted to avoid complete disaster. Plant diseases and insects are causing huge yield losses; efforts in these regards are needed to carryout appropriate plant protection measures and control these problems. Develop production and marketing infrastructure to enhance the efficiency of the marketing system for vegetables industry. Lastly the farmers need suitable extension services at their doorsteps so that the research findings could reach them and to be applied in the field for higher returns.

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