Modern farm plan for Balochistan.

• Author: Fazl-E-Haider, Syed

Byline: Syed Fazl-E-Haider

The agriculture sector in Balochistan is facing many serious challenge and constraints for future growth. These challenges include reclamation of cultivable wasteland, diversification of production from the low value to high value products in response to market demand; Increased farm productivity through sustainable use of natural resources and other inputs and the rising demand for agricultural products with the growth of population and incomes. The major constraints include scarcity of water, unavailability of agricultural inputs and lack of a strong agriculture research system. The key ingredients of future agriculture strategy should be the reclamation of cultivable wasteland and development of water resources in the province. Reclamation of about 4.0 million hectares of cultivable wasteland is essential to enhance agricultural production in the province.

The capacity of the Provincial Agriculture Engineering Department need to be enhanced by providing it additional machinery and bulldozers to reclaim the cultivable wasteland.

Balochistan is a water starved province. It is far behind other provinces in agricultural production. More than 75 percent of its population heavily relies on agricultural goods and services for their livelihood. The province depends on rain, Karezat and tube-wells for irrigation. Over 50 percent farmers rely on only irrigated crops, which are the main enterprise. Naseerabad, the only canal irrigated district, receives water from the tail end of the Indus River system at the time of sowing cotton and paddy.

Agriculture in the province with respect to source of water may be classified as canal irrigated, Karezat irrigated, tubewell irrigated and rainfed or barani agriculture. The main problem confronting the farmers of Balochistan is the shortage of irrigation water. The long term water management program in Balochistan will meet a long felt need of the province for adequate quantity of water for agriculture, especially the expanding acreage of fruit orchards.

A marked improvement in agriculture can make the province self-sufficient in food. There is need to bring about a shift from traditional to a technology based farming system in the province. This would require the use of appropriate agricultural inputs in technologically feasible and economically profitable manner. In context of chemical technology, the fertilizers offer tremendous scope and assistance to enhance agriculture...