CHITRAL: The experiment of growing pistachio plants in the vast but dry and arid plateau of Kagh Lusht in Upper Chitral has given amazing results leading to establish the hope that this dry temperate zone is highly congenial to growing the dry fruit.

The divisional forest officer of Chitral Forest Division, Shaukat Fiaz, told Dawn that the survival rate of the plant was found to be nearly cent per cent as none of the saplings withered away during the scorching summer and freezing winter seasons of the year.

Giving details of the success story, he said the department had earmarked the southern part of the 11km long (with average width of 2km) barren land of Kagh Lusht for plantation under the Billion Tree Tsunami Afforestation Project (BTTAP) and it was here that experimentation of different species of alien plants was carried out.

“Finding the drought tolerant attribute of different plants and the analysis of the physical features of its soil, it was decided to carry out experimentation process with pistachio on a small scale,” the forest officer said.

The department arranged electric power pumps to lift water from Biyar River and irrigate the pistachio saplings during the hot summer season.

“It was astonishing for us to see this spring the sprouting of the saplings which had grown to a considerable height during one year and thus the experiment was successful and we were encouraged to carry it forward,” he said.

Mr Fiaz said the seedlings were used in the second year for growing it on a large scale whose germination rate was also observed to be higher than that of the seeds of wild plants in the plateau which used to be devoid of vegetation in the past.

He said at present, there were about 3,400 saplings of pistachio in the sprawling nursery of Kagh Lusht which are growing satisfactorily and its multiplication process would be carried out by sowing more number of seedlings.

He said pistachio is dioecious, which has both male and female trees, and its fruit bearing starts after 15 to 18 years after its plantation while it grows to a height of 20 to 30 feet and it has no affinity for being irrigated frequently implying that it required very small amount of water.

Pistachio price per kilogram fluctuates between Rs2,000 to Rs3,000 in national markets and it can bring a large sum of cash to its farmers. The successful experimentation has filled the people of Upper Chitral with hopes of availing a new source of income fraught with high dividends.

Former MPA from Upper Chitral Syed Sardar Hussain Shah said that there were vast tracts of lands in all the villages of the area like that of Kagh Lusht which could be turned into orchards of pistachio in future.

He said once the first lot of the trees became mature to give nuts successfully, the people from all the three adjacent valleys of Mastuj, Mulkhow and Torkhow would switch over the cultivation of cereal crops and fodder to pistachio and Chitral would be a major producer of the commodity.

Aftab Ahmed, a horticulturist associated with a non-governmental organisation, however, said that it was premature to talk about the success of pistachio cultivation because there were still many phases till the plants started producing the fruit.

He said the harsh winter in this belt may impair this alien plant as we see in the case of other non-local species of plants which were introduced here many decades ago that could not withstand the extended winter season.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2019