Idea no.2: Agriculture

[Maxpane]

kitchen gardening

to save money

 

[bananarepublic]

This is a great thread. I would try to contribute as best as I can. There are so many ideas but ideas alone won't make any difference unless until we start to implement. I will therefore go through the ideas already presented and try to elaborate on them:
Adopting a village/school as mentioned by some is a great idea and best way to uplift people/youth. One can crowd fund and start with improving the village with clean water, sewerage (also sewerage treatment plant... most important), school, roads and if possible Gas/Electricity provision. These could lift the quality of life and help the environment as well (in terms of sewerage treatment). Tree planting and parks within the boundaries of the villages (Government or Villagers could set a village boundary). This idea is close to my heart as it improve quality of life and create excellent communities.
Crops: Some have mentioned cultivation of wheat, soybean etc. The Soybean crop is a tough one as it only yields around 1.25 tonnes per acre (about Rs40-50k revenue) and I am not sure if a small farmer can benefit from it. It is some times better to invest in fruit production i.e. citrus, papaya, banana or just trees for wood.... I believe the cash crops should be cultivated by farmers with a substantial land holdings so that if there are bad years they can sustain the losses and still able to farm.
It is very critical that we adopt drip irrigation as the future holds much more difficult time for agriculture in the form of water shortage and climate change. Drip irrigation will reduce labour cost as watering a corn field or an orchard could be done by one man. Here one could have a sub surface drip irrigation (Company: Netafim) which could water an entire field in one go (could be 25 acres or 1000 acres). Spoon feeding water as well as fertiliser. Saving water and fertiliser. If I had the money I would deploy this irrigation system.
Education: The above comment on adopting village/school should cater for this point as it could benefit the community two fold by teaching the kids at school in the day and afternoon/evening classes for the adults/senior citizens which could teach them about new techniques in agriculture as well as other things.
Processing (value add): So after the production of crops, fruits and veg. These should be processed further for either domestic consumption or export. I could name a few things like Tomatoes, Oranges, Mangos, Papaya, Guava etc could be processed into juices, drinks and pulp etc. Pakistan is one of the top 10 producer of Dates but none are sold as premium product. Example could be Medjool dates could easily be cultivated and exported in large quantities but will need attention to detail in production and processing to excellent standard.

Now comes to the question how would I contribute:
If I had money/resource and security that people won't try to defraud (this means need land reforms, transparent sales/transfer of land and where judiciary doesn't allow every tom/dick and harry to file a case against anyone) me then I would cultivate the cash crops and process them at farm and sell them to end user. For example

Corn to feed for animals which produce milk/meat then​

milk/cheese to consumer. Wheat to flour to end user. I could go on with ideas but maybe for another day.

Drip irrigation won't work here in Pakistan as it is just an or trend
Drip irrigation needs water free from any mineral and granular impurities or else the drippipes get clogged and stop working
Several prototypes of drip irrigation was tried here in Gilgit-Baltistan but all fall died to their drip pipes getting clogged .

 

[Shah01]

Drip irrigation needs water free from any mineral and granular impurities or else the drippipes get clogged and stop workin

Some type of filtration is used before sending water through the drip lines. People in the USA feeding liquid manure to the fields through sub surface drip irrigation so I am sure there are ways to deal with impurities in water. These drip lines also need to be flushed every few months I think.

 

[Dubious]

Ok let all the agricultural ideas pour in...and lets discuss what the problems are and tangible solutions...ideas = solutions/ new insights and ways to tackle the problem!

I found an old thread by @DESERT FIGHTER that I will merge with this thread too!

 

[Dubious]

This thread needs to be bumped up!

 

[khail007]

Another option is Olive farming ... which i wonder could be possible there?

Sir G, are you in Bahawalpur? Is olive feasible in your areas climate? If yes consider it also .... olive could survive on drip system. You will have to wait for 3 to 5 years for harvesting but after that your generations to come will enjoy the ALLAH SWT blessing - In-Shaa-Allah. It is very paying and gift from heavens.

 

[newb3e]

agri is the only sector that caj transform our economy but first we need land reforms give land ownershipnto everyone ,follow modern agriculture practices , manufacture HEIS equipment regularly make them cheaper,educate farmers and most importantly setup procesing facility so we can export produce.

60% of the population isbemployed in agriculture sector and if they get money they will spend it and ourneconomy will grow.

 

[zulu]

@DESERT FIGHTER ko tu open karwain @Dubious he inputs would be more value able last we were talking about some ideas

 

[Dubious]

@DESERT FIGHTER ko tu open karwain @Dubious he inputs would be more value able last we were talking about some ideas

That kid used some serious insults in fights with other members ...Let me see what I can do...

 

[zulu]

He is living in Karachi but from Baluchistan got lands there if he do something it would be double beneficial esp his area kinda tough challenge so any such adventure would be very useful for people living in this area

That kid used some serious insults in fights with other members ...Let me see what I can do...

 

[B.K.N]

agri is the only sector that caj transform our economy but first we need land reforms give land ownershipnto everyone ,follow modern agriculture practices , manufacture HEIS equipment regularly make them cheaper,educate farmers and most importantly setup procesing facility so we can export produce.

60% of the population isbemployed in agriculture sector and if they get money they will spend it and ourneconomy will grow.

The biggest problem with Pakistani agriculture is small land holdings a farmer who owns only a few acres can't afford agricultural machinery so his yield would be lower but big land owners are farming at industrial scale

 

[newb3e]

The biggest problem with Pakistani agriculture is small land holdings a farmer who owns only a few acres can't afford agricultural machinery so his yield would be lower but big land owners are farming at industrial scale

on the flip side large landnholders dont care about efficiency hence theblow yields and lower efficiency

 

[B.K.N]

on the flip side large landnholders dont care about efficiency hence theblow yields and lower efficiency

That's not true actually big farms are most efficient and small farms are just useless.
collective farming would be the best thing for Pakistani agriculture but it's not possible

 

[newb3e]

That's not true actually big farms are most efficient and small farms are just useless.
collective farming would be the best thing for Pakistani agriculture but it's not possible

very few large farms are doing great in sindh i know of 2-3 big farms that are run professionally and maiority of the huge farms simply dont care about yield or efficiency they give their land oj rent or hari system and poor harri becomes theirbslave for rest of his live

 

[Verve]

@Dubious

Any study on Safflower cultivation in Pakistan?

My dad was one of the those behind the first commercial farming of Strawberries in Pakistan, in Swat, in the 80s. I recall him saying that Balochistan has a very good climate for Safflower production and the oil from the plant is high quality and expensive. He's from food industry, raw materials (food oils, starch etc) to finished food products.

High quality Safflower oil is £20+ per litre in UK.