GILGIT-Baltistan has great potential in its natural and indigenous resources, including delicious fresh and dry fruits, alluring gemstones, medicinal herbs and more.
However, due to the region’s extreme cold climate and its isolation from mainstream national and international markets, these valuable resources remain largely unintroduced despite their high demand. Health-conscious consumers increasingly prefer organic and indigenous products. Livelihood in the northern mountains of Pakistan is largely subsistence-oriented, with household-level agriculture—such as small-scale crop cultivation of wheat, fodder crops, orchards and animal production—forming the backbone of the household economy. Fifty percent of the population depends solely on household agriculture (HHA), while 42 percent combine it with livelihood employment, though off-farm opportunities in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan belt are limited. Some family members seek employment in Pakistan’s plains. A small fraction (six percent) is involved in local micro-enterprises like retail shops alongside HHA and only two percent engage in both farming and daily-wage labour.
In Gilgit-Baltistan region, apricots along with other deciduous fruits are primarily produced as cash crop where majority of families grow apricot. Average household has 28 trees of which nine are bearing fruit and producing 750 kilograms of apricot per annum (GOP, 1989). The practice of planting seeds from the best trees over an extended period of time has resulted in an incredible amount of variation. Many years ago, the farmers did learn to graft, hence in each village in addition to seedling trees, one would now find many favorite local cultivars. Distribution of favorite cultivars remained uneven because some existed in only one village and others were widely distributed but primarily within the confines of each former kingdom. In several villages survey showed 180 different cultivars as a sample of variation that existed in the region. It reported 31 local cultivars in Ghanche district. Overall, good quality apricots are characterized as very high in soluble solids and sweet kernels with relatively small size. Fruit size was not important selection criterion.
In Hunza, one of the larger fruited cultivar has outstanding quality for both fresh as well as dry use, with high soluble solids, pronounced aroma and rich flavour. ‘Alishah Kakas’ is another favorite in Hunza because of its exceptionally high soluble solids, fine quality and firm texture making it suitable for shipping fresh and excellent for drying. In Baltistan, ‘Margulam’ is prized as a fresh fruit for its juiciness, sweetness and fine flavour, whereas ‘Halmon’ is the best for drying due to its high soluble solids and rapid drying characteristic. ‘Kachachuli’ is unique too, although the fruit has relatively high soluble solids, the flesh reaches a moderate degree of firmness and did not soften further with age, hence its local name actually said, ‘apricot that doesn’t ripen’. ‘Kachachuli’ is grown mainly for its large edible seed. A local storage cultivar is said to hold its quality until March once stored underground as per indigenous practices.
Farmers own a variety of fruit plants including apricot, apples, almond, pear, cherry, walnut, etc. Fruits have mainly been produced to meet annual family needs for dry fruit, particularly during severe winter. Among all respondents in the abovementioned survey, 86 percent ranked apricot as their most preferred fruit tree because apricot would meet most of their subsistence needs. Dried apricot and kernels are main dry fruits for winter. Most fuel wood is obtained from apricot trees. Oil from kernels is obtained for various domestic uses. Cracked kernel shells are also used as fuel. The second preferred fruit plant is apple (10 percent).
There is considerable scope to introduce new cultivars with extended shelf life and successive ripening sequence over the season to extend the apricot marketing down to big commercial centers of plains. It is reported that about 60 apricot varieties in Gilgit-Baltistan, whereas Halman, Karfochuli, Marghulam and Sharakarfa are the prime. Most apricot cultivars blossom in early March. The blossoming time is about a fortnight and may be prolonged or shortened by the presence or absence of cold spell. Considerable variation is also shown by different cultivars in their blossoming habits. The incidence of frost during March is common and considerable damage to apricot crop is annually experienced.
People of Gilgit-Baltistan do not favour the use of fertilizers and technology, preferring traditional farming, which is considered better from a health perspective. Prospects for foreign investment are equally high and the investors could launch ventures in different alluring sectors. There was a vast potential for research, business and investment in Gilgit-Baltistan in the field of gemstones, marble, fruits and dry fruits. There was a huge scope for gemstone industry as nine precious gemstones, including ruby and saffaire are founding GB. But because of lack of resources, 80 percent of the gemstones are being wasted due to illegal and inefficient methods of mine blasting and cutting. A huge quantity of various kinds of local fruits was being exported from GB. But because of lack of awareness, a huge quantity of apricot, almost 80 percent and other fruit items were being wasted.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Islamabad.
