Once the capital of the Sumra dynasty in Sindh, Umerkot not only boasts ancient history but is equally rich in agricultural diversity. From being the birthplace of the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great to the legendary folklore of Umar and Marvi discussed by Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, Umerkot district or Amarkot holds a distinctive place in Sindh. From veggies to cotton and from mango orchards farming to ispaghol cultivation, the district is also known for the production of dundi cut chilli.

Umerkot is synonymous with Marvi, one of the seven queens in folklore poetry of Sindh’s great mystic poet, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai. He has described the tragic romance saga as the symbol of resistance and love for her native land. In her folktale, Bhitai discussed veggies grown in the desert of Thar of which Umerkot is historically a part of. Located in eastern Sindh, about 60km from the Indian border, it is famous for the fort that dates back to the 11th century and exists today.

Emperor Akbar was born here in 1542 after his father Humayun faced defeat at the hands of Sher Shah Suri who was hosted by Hindu Raja Rana Prasad. Umar Soomro, a Sindh’s Sumra dynasty king who ruled the region between 1050-1350, founded Umerkot and built the fort. Umerkot connects Pakistan with India through a rail link at Khokhrapar-Munabao zero point, though the service remains suspended for the time being.

The Pakistan Mercantile Exchange has established a laboratory for chilli testing and has been managing online trading for the last five years, charging 1.5 per cent from buyers and sellers

This left bank district of Sindh is in the tail-end area of lower Sindh. It suffers from water shortage every Kharif season. The Sukkur barrage supplies irrigation water to the district to enable farmers to cultivate cotton, wheat, sugarcane, chillies, sunflower, mangoes, lemon, banana, jujube etc in the barrage areas and lentil and bajra in the desert part.

It was part of Tharparkar when Umerkot’s native and now senior politician Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah became chief minister Sindh in Nawaz Sharif’s first government of 1990. Then Umerkot emerged as an independent district. Merged again with Tharparkar for a brief period, it was bifurcated anew as a separate district in early 2000.

Being a law minister in the Jam Sadiq Ali-led Sindh cabinet, Mr Shah represented Sindh in the Water Apportionment Accord 1991 which remains a principle document for the sharing of irrigation water amongst the provinces through all of Pakistan’s barrages.

Having a considerable presence of the disciples of jamaat like Ghausia (Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s), Hur (Pir Pagara’s), Sarwari (Makhdooms of Hala) etc it is home to political families including Syeds, Talpurs, Mangrios and others. They are a part of the electoral politics in civil and military regimes in the area. Their second generations are in the field to maintain their stranglehold over the area’s politics.

Hindu Sodha Rajputs live in large numbers in Rana Jagir (farmlands), 13km from the city. Their current chieftain and MPA Rana Hamir Singh is said to be the 26th Rana of Dhat.

Umerkot’s economy revolves around agriculture. Its barrage area stretches over 500,881 acres and the desert (comprising Kaplore and Deenore tapas of Umerkot taluka) over 261,555 acres. Besides major crops, smaller crops like ispaghol and veggies are also grown. Ispaghol seems to be making inroads as it is drought resistance and Mian Saleem, a known chilli grower, says ispaghol is preferred by farmers. “8,000 acres were brought under ispaghol,” says an agriculture official.

Mr Saleem says ispaghol is giving better returns. “Therefore, growers are switching to it to keep their economy going. One acre needs only two cycles of water, a bag of urea and 2kgs of seed. Its yield is around 12 to 15 maunds an acre,” he says. He has also grown citrus family fruits like kinnow, malta, mosambi and grape-fruits. Barring kinnow, the rest have given good results. “Small- to medium-size farmers prefer to grow these fruits,” he says.

While a hybrid variety of chilli is grown, the dundi cut chilli remains Umerkot’s identity and is known for its stability of colour and flavour. Barring losses due to water shortage, or rain-driven disasters, the crop’s acreage varies from 14,000ha to 8,300ha. On account of rain-related damages, it was sold for Rs30,000/40kg in Kunri’s market this year.

While a hybrid variety of chilli is grown, the dundi cut chilli remains Umerkot’s identity and is known for its stability of colour and flavour

Chilli was included as a component of the World Bank funded Sindh Agriculture Growth Project (SAGP), besides dates, rice and onions. Mian Saleem, who leads the project’s chilli focal group, says some changes are to be made for a healthy crop.

“The SAGP is going to end next year but it has not brought change that would benefit farmers. I have experimented by using new practices to prepare a nursery and have found a world of difference as compared to conventional farming,” he regrets.

Umerkot’s popular chilli market of Kunri has lately witnessed online trading for farmers. The Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (PMEx) has established a laboratory for chilli testing and has been managing online trading for the last five years, charging 1.5 per cent from buyers and sellers. The farmers’ 1.5pc is absorbed by the Sindh Board of Investment (SBI), according to a former SAGP project director and PMEx’s agribusiness adviser, Shahjehan Hashmani. “Online trade is yet to get a boost as companies are reluctant to make swift online payments. Few companies prefer this mode of trade,” he says.

Giving the acreage numbers of cotton of the last five years, it is still holding ground but struggling to survive. While sugarcane stood at 2,643ha in 2017-18, 1,087 in 2018-19 and 1,366ha in 2019-20, cotton acreage was 28,753ha in 2017-18, 7,111ha in 2018-19 and 22,611ha in 2019-20.

Sunflower cultivation was a success story until a decade back. An oil extraction unit was set-up but it was shifted to Karachi. “People have lost interest in sunflower and have swiftly switched over to ispaghol,” says Mr Saleem.

Sunflower’s acreage has declined across Sindh. At its peak, the province’s acreage was 266,964ha in 2010 and its acreage in Umerkot that year was 15,040ha. But for the last three years, it has varied between 2,400ha to 2,900ha.

In terms of irrigation water, Sukkur barrage’s left bank is 220 miles long. The Nara canal feeds Umerkot with a designed discharge of 13,602 cusecs. A long stretch of (lower) Nara canal — around 40 miles area — awaits realignment. According to irrigation officials, 70pc of the work is completed and the rest is hit by litigation issues, involving land acquisition.

For the governance of irrigation, Umerkot falls in the administrative jurisdiction of the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (Sida) through one of its three area water boards which manage the Nara canal to distribute water in the command area and recover revenue and water charges.

“A big portion of the lower Nara canal, which requires realignment to improve water availability, falls in the Sanghar district and the realignment beneficiaries are from Umerkot. Thus people from Sanghar have moved courts against land acquisition, causing delays to the project,” says irrigation officer Mansoor Memon who has considerable experience managing the canal.

The upper Nara canal after taking off from the Sukkur barrage ends near Chotiari dam in Sanghar. Then lower Nara brings water to Umerkot. Lower Nara that ends at Farash Complex near Dhoro Naro in Umerkot could receive flows from upper Nara and could also be supplemented by the Chotiari reservoir.

The re-alignment of lower Nara has been underway for a long period. Part of it was completed in 2002 in phase-I, along with the Chotiari dam. The phase-II of re-alignment work started in 2007. It covers the canal’s length between Makhi (near Chotiari) to Farash Complex and known as Makhi-Farash Link Canal (MFLC) Chotiari phase-II. It would replace curvy lower Nara canal by reducing the length by 10 miles and carry 3,857 cusecs.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, December 14th, 2020