Pakistan has been fighting the war on terror, as a front line state, since September 2001. So far, the war has brought huge destruction to Pakistan by slowing down the economic growth, devastating the social structure, and harming the country politically.
Among like many, agriculture sector is one of the most damaging sector across tribal district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. After decades of long militancy has badly affected everything including agriculture sector in the tribal region.
But ever since peace has returned to the tribal areas, thousands of displaced families have returned to their hometowns and resumed economic activities. Like other fields, the agriculture sector is also being rejuvenated and the abandoned fields are being ploughed once again.
When talked to various people associated with farming and agriculture sector in tribal area of Pakistan. They have expressed their views and shared their experience on losses due to maintenance and reestablishing of agriculture sector across tribal area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Amin Gul, 29, is hailing from Tehsil Bara, Khyber district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He shared his losses due to militancy in the area said that “we were having Plant Nursery in the area but due to unrest situation in the region few years ago, we left everything, and migrated to Peshawar. Living life as internally displaced people resulted huge loss in agriculture sector”
He further detailed that “Before displacement, I had fruit nursery which had to be abandoned due to war on terror. Now government assists us and we were made able to establish plant nursery again. Now my father and brother and even friends are working, feeling secure economically, Gul added.
Sarzaman Orakzai, 47, is another victim of agriculture loss associated with livestock sector from district Kurram of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said that “We had a good number of livestock before the situation deteriorated, but due to the sectarian war and then military operations resulted us to bear heavy losses.
After displacement, we had no shelter for the livestock which caused death of our animals.
He is now happy for reestablishing their livestock business said that “Now, we have enough livestock including hens and animals that give us eggs and milk”, Orakzai, concluded
Tribal area has 2.7 million hectares, of which 0.23 million hectares is cultivable, 0.696 2 million hectares is cultural waste while average land holdings per household is 0.716 hectares while climatically tribal area comes under arid and semi-arid zones.
Due to terrorism, the region has been severely affected by unrest and military operations over the last decades resulting some 260 000 families have been displaced from their homes.
Malik Bilal is an ex program officer at Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He has experience agriculture sector in tribal area of Pakistan.
On contacting Malik Bilal on phone says that “Nature has done great favors to the tribal areas of Pakistan. From high mountain peaks which get covered with snow in winter, to streams of fresh gushing water, from thick diyar forests to reservoir of millions of tons minerals, tribal area has everything needed for the economic uplift of an area.
In tribal district, most of the people are depending on the agriculture sector and due to the unrest in the area people have left their homes and agriculture land become barren causing immense lost to the tribal people. After peace restored, it was a challenge to bring agricultural land to life, Bilal expressed.
He further detailed that the fertile fields remained uncultivated for years and the tribal people faced lots of financial losses. In order to compensate the people, the Agriculture department prepared a number of schemes to revive farming and agriculture, Bilal added.
In addition to all these challenges, he hoped that tribal has very fertile soil, suitable for growing many kinds of crops. Though, there is no proper irrigation system in the entire tribal belt, yet these areas are popular for producing some finest crops, vegetables and fruits, Bilal concluded.
The Agriculture department grew orchards on about 1775 acres of land in the entire tribal belt while 876 deserted orchards were restored and free seeds of wheat, maize and other crops were distributed among farmers for a total of 3447 acres of land.
However, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations distributed seed packages to approximately 76,935 subsistence farmers for the year 2018-2019.
The recipients included recently returned families of five tribal districts of Khyber, Kurram, North Waziristan, South Waziristan, and the Orakzai District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Tribal district also facing many problems to uplift the agriculture sector. Among like many, Shah Khalid hailing from Mohamand district express that “There is no electricity while the majority of the tube wells are also out of order”
Another tribal farmer, Sabaz Ali from Bajaur district, is happy that the farming has been completely revived but still expressed that the local farmers are still facing problems of shortage of seeds and fertilizers, Ali concluded.
