Chitral potato growers suffer huge losses

Image via Wikipedia

Via Dawn - CHITRAL, Aug 27: Potato growers in Garam Chashma valley here have been suffering millions of rupees losses, as a bulk of their potato produce has started decaying in the absence of cold storage and transportation facilities due to extensive damage caused to the roads by recent floods. 

Talking to Dawn here on Friday, a number of farmers, including Zardullah, Adina Khan and Charshanba Khan, said that the 45-kilometre road from Chitral to Garam Chashma valley had been washed away by the river flood. 

They said that most of the farmers cultivated potato on commercial scale on the advice of agriculturists of Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, as the soil of the area was found best for growing potato. “For the last few years we have been getting a bumper crop of potato, which is liked for its taste, larger size, and whitish red colour,” they said.

The farmers said that bumper potato crop had also improved their financial position over the years. “Before shifting to potato growing three of my four sons would go to the nearby districts in winter season to seek employment as labour, but now they are working in their potato fields and earning enough to lead a happy life,” one of the growers said. 

They said that usually traders would rush to the area in the harvesting season to transport a bulk of potatoes to markets in other parts of the country, but now it was not possible due to nearly non-existent road infrastructure. They said that still porters were transporting a small portion of the commodity on their backs. The farmers observed that porters, using mountainous routes, were charging as high as Rs300 for transporting a 40-kg bag of potato to Chitral city as against Rs40 for the same quantity by truck. 

Meanwhile, people of Karimabad were also facing problems to transport high quality apples and bean crops to the local market. The valley is totally cut off from rest of the district after flash floods washed away 35-kilometres road and four jeepable suspension bridges.