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Groundnut: a new crop in the Nara canal belt
The climatic condition of a region affects the agricultural cropping pattern and different areas, thus, produce different crops. Amongst a host of climatic factors, rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind velocity, duration of sunshine affect the cropping pattern in a significant way.
The climate of Sindh embodies most of the characteristics of aridity except in the south were maritime influences become more conspicuous. However, so far as the Nara canal belt is concerned, its most striking feature is high summer temperature and considerable variability in amount and time of rainfall. Soil type in the Nara canal belt comprises sandy soil, sandy loam and sandy clay loam. Major crops of the Nara canal belt are cotton and wheat but guar, rapeseed and mustard are also cultivated. Nara canal originate from Sukkur barrage and terminate at head jamrao In district Sanghar. After its take-off from Sukkur barrage Nara canal irrigates thousands of acres of land on either sides of the canals in districts Sukkur, Khairpur , and Sanghar. But no soils alongside canal’s belt are nor fit for cotton or wheat thus mostly remain uncultivated or poorly cultivated. This very land comprises coarse sand particle more than 60 per cent thus come under the category of sandy soil.
During the Kharif 2003 season [cotton crop season] some growers in taluka Nara of district Khairpur tried cultivation of groundnut on the land comprising sandy soil. To the surprise of the growers cultivation of this crop proved successful. Yield obtained were in the range of 10 to 14 mounds per acre. However, all the growers who had undertaken cultivation of groundnut for the first time complained the sporadic damage of about to mature crop by termites. Some growers reported damage of foliage by armyworm, which had shifted from the cotton crop grown in the vicinity. However, close examination of roots of damaged groundnut runners indicated that it was not solely the white ants but some kind of disease also, which had caused drying of mature plants. This is because some damaged plants were without any symptoms of termite damage. A few growers were found attributing patchy damage of their groundnut crop to the excessive irrigation. In nutshell description it can be said that growers were not aware of the expertise of obtaining optimum yield from this new crop of this area.
Here it would be pertinent to mention that groundnut is the fourth most important source of edible vegetable oil in the world and contributes about 14 per cent of the world’s oil production. Groundnut is grown primarily on barani lands in Pakistan and is an important cash crop for farmers in these areas during the kharif season. Pakistan is facing an increasingly severe deficit of edible oil production resulting in increased imports and expenditure of hard earned foreign exchange. While no single oilseed crop can eliminate this shortage, groundnut has the potential to become a significant contributor to edible oil production in Pakistan. Here it would be proper to mention that with a view to achieve self sufficiency in the edible oil production Pakistan oil seed development project had been launched by the government with great fun fare in the upper Sindh region during 1976.Under this programme a new oilseed crop, Canola, had been introduced. In the Nara canal belt growers were advised by the PODP officials that canola would fetch more income than wheat crop. But unfortunately canola failed to compete with wheat crop, as return from canola was less than wheat crop. Moreover, canola and wheat require the same type of soil for its cultivation. But in case of groundnut soil rendered unfit for wheat or cotton crops will be required. Hence this new oilseed crop has promising future in the Nara canal belt where it could be cultivated on lakh of acres without affecting acreage of any major economic crops in the area.
The groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) is a leguminous plant. Like other plants of the leguminaceae family, its roots bear nodules which fix nitrogen from atmosphere thus enriching the soil besides benefiting the crop itself. Groundnutis thought to have originated along the eastern front of the Andes Mountain in southern Bolivia. Spanish and Portuguese explorers in the 16th and 17th centuries found native Indians cultivating groundnuts in thewas Indian islands, Mexico, on the northeast and east coast of Brazil.
From these region groundnuts were transported by various means to Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Island (Hammons 1973). The groundnut was first brought to the Indian sub-continent via Africa trade routes in the 17th century by the missionaries who followed Vasco Da Gama. By the late 1800s groundnuts were grown widely in India, West Africa, and the United States as important center of cultivation.
Among the edible oilseed crops groundnut ranks second in terms of acreage, only next to rape seed and mustard accounting for 18 per cent of the total area under edible oilseeds. Province wise, Punjab accounts for most of the groundnut area (85 per cent) and production (78 per cent) followed by NWFP (11 per cent and 17 per cent) and Sindh 4 and 5 per cent]. In Sindh groundnut is mostly cultivated in Sanghar district but recently its acreage has gained significant increase also in Ghotki District particularly in the desert’s cotton belt in taluka Khinju. Its area in the river belt having sandy silt/soil in district Khairpur is also on rise with the passage of time. Roughly 85 per cent of the groundnut crop in the country is cultivated under the Barani condition.
Suggestions
In view of its high protein and mineral content and its multiple commercial and industrial uses, along with other traditional and non-traditional oilseed crops need to be promoted. In Nara canal belt farming community in general have no adequate knowledge of this crop. Presently its cultivation is restricted to those growers who have employed “ Bagrhi community” known for g rowing vegetables. Since this crop has great potential in the barren sandy soil of Nara canal belt and has no competition with other crop except guar which is not considered cost effective, it is warranted that potential of groundnut as important source of edible vegetable oil is harnessed. In order to let the farming community of the Nara belt know the appropriate method of cultivation of this oilseed crops it is imperative that PODB and PARC come forward to help the growers of this part of the country in their efforts to obtain the optimum yield from this new crop of the area.
The writer
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