PANJGUR district is the largest date-producer (with an annual turnover of 556, 608 tons of fresh dates) in Pakistan which has the fifth position in the world. It has many varieties — 128-132. Among them the best and favourite variety is Mozati. Dates have a high level of nutrients for a human body. Most of the date production is the result of irrigation system like Karez. Unfortunately, the water table is getting low day by day. The cause of the low water table is low annual rainfall. Most of the date farms lack proper water.

Date preservation is done on a small scale but most of the crops are lost due to the non-availability of cold storage. The farmers preserve dates in huge quantities by sun-drying the fruit, but this technique cannot be successful on a large scale due to climatic conditions. In the absence of cold storages, farmers face losses and sell their product at low prices.

The provincial and federal governments must establish cold storage for dates.

Shahab Atta & Fareed Ahmed

Panjgur

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2017