Helping the poorest of Balochistan.

Byline: Nasir Jamal

Nestled among the dry, arid hills of Amuri, almost four hours of drive from Dalbadin, Ali Dost's fields produced scarcely enough wheat and vegetables in a good rainy year to sustain his family through the next harvest. For cash, he would work as a 'daily wager' in Dalbadin or Taftan, the border town famous for illegal trade between Pakistan and Iran. But that was a few years ago.

Today Ali Dost, in his mid-50s, harvests a hefty wheat crop and grows vegetables throughout the year even in times of poor rainfall and drought. 'I no longer have to worry about feeding my family or leave home for work in the city. I now harvest enough wheat and vegetables to feed my family and sell the surplus in the market for cash,' he told a group of journalists from Lahore during a visit to the area earlier this month. 'A surplus crop saves me Rs80,000 in cash a year.'

What changed his fortunes? A few small, inexpensive but sustainable interventions and training in irrigation water management by an independent non-profit, Islamic Relief Pakistan (IRP), have brought about dramatic changes in the lives of poor farmers. IRP was founded in 1984 by postgraduate Muslim students in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Birmingham and is operating in over 30 countries.

It has helped farmers scattered over scores of small villages across the drought-prone Chaghi, the largest but poorest district of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran that hit headlines internationally when Pakistan conducted a series of nuclear tests in its mountains in 1998. The IRP has been working in different drought-hit parts of the province, mostly in Chaghi, which is ranked among the poorest, least developed regions of the world, for more than last two decades.

The non-profit organisation Islamic Relief Pakistan has spent Rs250m to implement sustainable interventions to improve irrigation in drought-prone Chaghi

The organisation has been supporting the local communities facing an acute water scarcity to enhance their agriculture output and household income by using modern techniques like drip irrigation, adopting drought-resilient seed varieties and crops, and establishing olive, date, grape and pomegranate orchids under their Drought Resilient Agriculture Modelling (Dram) project. Under this programme, it has helped more than 24,000 individuals with a funding of Rs250 million spent over three years.

The villagers are also helped in damming rainwater to store it...