HARIPUR, Nov 28: Unfavourable weather conditions and water shortage are the chief reasons that have considerably shrunken the per tree yield of Khanpuri citrus exposing the farmers to financial losses and the consumers to unaffordable market price of this popular fruit.

The Khanpur valley of district Haripur is famous for the distinguished taste of its juicy citrus across the country.

These orchards are spread over an area of 280 hectares where the most popular species of citrus particularly grown in the Panj Katha area include red-blood, shakry, musammy, hamlin, Washington naval, ruby red, fruiter and grapefruit. The annual produce of these delicious varieties, according to Crop Reporting Centre Haripur, ranges between 2,200 to 2,400 ton.

These orchards also serve as the job market involving hundreds of unskilled agriculture workers including women who take part in plantation, hoeing, watering and other care of plants besides picking, packing and marketing this fruit for most part of the year.

Makeshift sale points of the Khanpuri citrus that are established every year from November to April end on the Khanpur-Taxila and Haripur-Abbottabad roads also serve as livelihood earning sources for the vendors.

The agriculture and forestry is the single largest job market that has, according to census 1998, absorbed 36.2 per cent of the total 18.2 per cent economically active rural population.

However, the poor weather conditions this time around mainly because of dry spell during April to June when the citrus trees start fruition and need watering more than usual, has badly affected the crop.

Heavy rains coupled with hailstorm during this monsoon this year further destroyed the remaining crop of fruit which was at very early stage, said Malik Sarfraz, a farmer and contractor whose family has been in this business for over five decades. He said that water scarcity has reduced the crop size by 60 percent than last year as a tree that usually produced 500 to 800 citruses annually only grew 150 to 300 this time and the weight and size of an orange was abysmally small.

The reduced crop size, according to Mr Sarfraz, has inflicted them loss of hundreds of thousands of rupees as they had purchased the crop on three to five years contract from the owner paying full amount in advance. Reduced crop size, he said, has also increased the per hundred price of Khanpuri citrus which is available for Rs800 and is expected to go up to Rs1,000.

He attributed the water shortage to step-motherly attitude of Khanpur Dam authorities that suspended irrigation water supply to the Panj Katha area during the hot season.

Murad, another farmer, said that ever shrinking agriculture activity in the citrus orchards had not only led the Khanpuri specie of citrus to near extinction but made the livelihood resources of a good majority of unskilled agriculture workers insecure.

Iqbal Hussain, a local agriculture expert, told this correspondent that decline in the orange yield in Khanpur valley was the consequence of climate change. Before 1988, he added, the area used to receive as much as 1,000 to 1,200 millimeters of rain annually, which has decreased to 500 mm to 800 mm.

It was observed that use of agriculture land for housing schemes and other commercial purposes was another reason that was fast depriving the consumers of the famous species of Khanpuri citrus as the owners were opting to chop their orchards for earning maximum monetary benefits.

Local environmentalists and horticulturists have demanded of the revenue authorities to check growing trend of orchard felling for commercial use for saving the ecosystem of picturesque valley of Khanpur.