LYCHEE came to Pakistan in early sixties from East Pakistan and without much study of the climate requirements, its cultivation was promoted in Punjab while considering Sindh as ‘too hot for the delicate crop’. The objection of the technical people in this regard was overruled.

No studies on climatic requirements of lychee have been done since then. The present writer brought 150 seedling from Punjab and planted them at a banana plantation near Tando Jam in January, 1965.

However, six plants proved to be of acceptable quality. They flourished and now have been productive for more than 30 years. This disproved the theory that the climate of Sindh was too hot for growing of lychee.

Now a detailed study of the Sindh climate and the lychee-growing area supports the contention that Sindh and the south of Multan are more suitable for growing lychee as compared to the northern Punjab or NWFP.

The climatic requirements for growing lychee, in brief, are; (a) location from 23°-30° north and south of Equator. This covers, whole Sindh 24° to 28° 30’N and Southern Punjab between 28°-30’ to 30’N; (b) High lychee production is in southern China at 24°N and 121°E; c) Northern Indian st ates producing lychee have temperature range of 4° to 38°C and usually not below 4°C; (d) frost in winter is a limiting factor for lychee;(e) Hot temperatures above 38°C cause fruit splitting, but reduction in irrigation 3-4 weeks harvest in May and June reduces it; (f)Average January maximum temperature of 19° and minimum of 9°C occur in lychee growing area of China with mean 13.5°C.

The temperatures of various places in Sindh in the given table.

In Queensland lychee does well in area minimum temperature 7-10°C in coldest month; young tree are injured at -0.5 to -1.0°C and killed at -2.2 to 1.6°C. These temperatures are frequents even in the Southern Punjab; late frosts kill lychee flowers. This can happen once in 10 years in Sindh and quite frequently in Punjab; chill requirement of lychee i.e., hours having minimum temperatures below 7.2°C is 200-300 hours or units; larkana \on 27°N has nearly the same climate at Alstonville (New South Wales) Australia on 29°C and where lychee is grown with reasonable yields.

Heat accumulation of lychee i.e., temperatures needed above 10°C for ripening are 588-688 degree days. Harvest at Hyderabad will be on May 15 and at Rohri May 23. In Multan it will be end June and in the northern Punjab in first fortnight of July.

In brief, lychee can be grown in whole Sindh. It is highly paying crop and accounts for 2 ½ times the income from any other fruit crop. The importance of lychee in the international market can be assessed from the fact that there have been three international lychee and longan conferences.

A journal, “Living Lychee” is being published. There have been series of publications on lychee produced in past 25 years in additional to annual lychee conferences in Australia and South Africa and their proceedings from these countries. Lychee is headed for a new export crop on large scale.