Shortage of water affects lychee orchards in Khanpur
By Our Correspondent
2018-07-18
HARIPUR: The shortage of water has affected lychee orchards in Khanpur valley, inflicting losses of hundreds of thousands rupees on farmers.
During a visit to Panjkatha area in the Khanpur valley, famous for its lush green fruit orchards especially lychees and oranges, this correspondent observed that every third bunch of lychee on a tree was affected by shortage of water.
The outer skin of the fruit trees, exposed to the sun, was blackened. Most ofbunches on a tree got ripen ahead of gaining the usual size due to which it was no more the choice of buyers.
`We are forced to sell this fruit forRs150 and Rs200 per kilogram as it is smaller in size and almost dried up pulp,` Malil( Fiaz, a farmer, told this scribe.
He said that the produce was bumper on its early stage and the farmers were happy that they would earn maximum profit but shortage of water destroyed 75per cent of fruits.
He said that he bought lychee orchard for Rs7.2 million and spent over Rs30,000 on labour, security and pesticides but shortage of water reduced the profit margin to zero. He said that would suffer 60 to 80 per cent of loss.
Naveed, another farmer, said that the lychee orchard needed weekly watering or at least thrice in a month but their orchards remained dry for two months.
He accused the Khanpur Dam authorities for inadequate supply of irrigation water to the orchards. He said that the farmers of Panjkatha had the right to get 56 cusecs water daily but during the current season they received very small quantity of water that resulted into destruction of orchards.
An official at the local office of irrigation department, when contacted, confirmed that Panjkatha area received short supply of water owing to decreasing level of water in the dam.
He said that water in the dam remained almost at dead level as the catchment areas of upper Hazara and Kashmir received little rain in the current season.
Like Khanpur citrus,lychee has four species namely Gola, Surahi, Bedana and China. All of them are juicy and costlier due to their taste and size.
