TAXILA: The famous lychee of Panjkatha has reached the market, with makeshift stalls on Taxila-Khanpur Road attracting buyers travelling on inter-district routes.

The orchards of Panjkatha are being visited by people from Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Taxila, Wah and Haripur now that their lychee trees are blooming. These orchards are known as the food baskets of the region, spread over 200 hectares and home to blood oranges, loquats and now lychees.

To attract buyers, farm owners have set up stalls where commuters can stop and pick up some of these fruits.

While buying fruit from a roadside vendor, Dr Saeed Ahmed said he came all the way from Wah Cantt for the lychees, adding that fruit from Pangkatha is better than what is available in local markets.

Another buyer, Fatima Batool, said she and her friends visit the farms in Panjkatha every season to enjoy fresh fruit.

“Picking fruit with your own hands from trees in lush green orchards and enjoying it on the spot is a unique experience that cannot be [described] with words,” another visitor, Ruth Gill, said.

Syed Jaffar Shah, a farm owner, told Dawn that lychees were introduced in the region in 1932 by Sardar Faqir Singh from Dera Dune in India. Because of its quality and profitability, in the early 60s large-scale plantations were established in this area.

Lychees have various varieties, such as Bedana, Calcutti, Suarahi, Gola, Bombay, Chinese, Lychee Siah and Madrasi, he said. The two widely grown commercial cultivars in Panjkatha are Gola and Surahi, the former being a consistent bearer and the latter showing alternate bearing habit.

Another farm owner, Tahir Durrani, said that more than 95pc of the orchards are marketed through pre-harvest contractors. More than 90pc of the fruit is consumed fresh domestically, with little processing and negligible exports.

To a question, Mr Durrani suggested that possible reasons for low yield are the narrow genetic base of the crop, the absence of suitable superior cultivars, traditional production systems, poor technological support, the incidence of insects and pests and poor post-harvest management.

Farm owner Raja Kamran said that lychee is mostly commercialised using mulberry baskets or hard paper packing, with a net weight of 20 kilograms. The lychee is a high-paying crop that accounts for two and half times the income of any other fruit crop, he added.

Bats are a threat to the local lychee crops, which they attack in flocks. The harvest in Panjkatha is mostly carried out in the first two weeks of July, he said.

Dr Asad Ali, the president of the Pakistan Academy of Family Physicians Taxila chapter, said that lychees are a good source of nutrition.

The fruit contains about 65 calories per 100 grams, and are a good source of potassium and nitrogen despite variation in cultivars.

They are also a good source of vitamin C, he said, although cultivars differ significantly in their vitamin C content.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2020