PESHAWAR, Jan 18: Valuable orchards and crops of thousands of farmers of the five union councils in Malakand Agency are being badly affected due to the bad state of the Landaki Irrigation Channel for almost two years.

In a statement here on Saturday, Azizur Rehman, Nazim Union Council Thana Khas said that, valuable orchards of persimmon, apricot, pears and peach, the main source of income, are being dried in Thana, Allah Dhand Dheri and Amandara union councils of Malakand Agency.

Similarly, rice, wheat and maize crops have also been destroyed due to faulty irrigation channel at Landaki. Moreover, the production of vegetables have also gone down in these areas due to lack of irrigation water.

The people of this area have rendered countless sacrifices for the defence of the country, he said and added that the people of Malakand Agency forthwith accepted the government’s decision to banned the cultivation of poppy.

The majority of people in the agency are literate and their main source of income was government jobs and farming.

But since there are few government jobs and the agriculture sector was being overlooked, the people are being badly hit economically.

Nazim Union Council Thana Khas said that the governor NWFP approved a number of development schemes for the province, however, this project — Landaki Irrigation channel scheme was lying unattended.—APP