Pakistan: Strawberry profits turn growers from traditional crops
Usually along the riverine belt of the river only wheat and vegetables are cultivated, as has been the case for many generations. However, this has been changing in the last few years.
“Some eight years ago, farmers hailing from the upper Punjab had started the cultivation of strawberry after acquiring land on lease from locals. But for the last four years, locals have also started to cultivate the crop after calculating the profit margin of traditional crops and the strawberry crop” said Malik Mumtaz Bhapla, a farmer of Mauza Muhammadpur Ghota.
He said that the strawberry plants cropped from January until March along the valley. He also said that small farmers were struggling to get involved in the cultivation as the start up costs were prohibitive, but that middlemen had started to offer loans to farmers.
“The profit against per acre is more than the input cost which is encouraging farmers to cultivate strawberry instead of traditional crops”, he said.
“Now we are cultivating wheat only for our own need. Besides strawberry we are also cultivating onion and garlic that also increase the margin of profit up to Rs150,000 per acre”, he said.
Currently the only market for strawberries is Multan as there not yet wide enough cultivation to spread the sales. Sales are at Rs100 per kilo.
Agriculture Officer Liaquat Gondal said the strawberry was an exotic fruit for the area, but now it was being cultivated on a large scale throughout the country, including Mingora, Swat, Lahore, Multan, Muzaffargarh and some cities of Sindh.
He said the planting of strawberry was being done in raised beds and its fruit was soft and perishable while its quality was affected when it touched the soil.
Gondal said the climate of riverine belt was suitable for the cultivation of this crop as it could not survive in high temperature.
Source: www.dawn.com
