THIS refers to Tahir Ali’s article ‘State of farming in Swat’ (July 8). He has talked about the potential of earning by planting walnut trees in Swat.

According to him, walnut trees can be planted on steep slopes. Their roots help prevent landslides and they should be planted on the boundary lines of fields of other crops.

He goes on to add that a farmer with 50 canals of land can plant 250 walnut trees and concludes that even if a tree bears only 50kg walnuts, the farmer can earn Rs2.5 million.

Stanford Business School did a case study in the tiny landlocked state of Bhutan. The average income per family in that area was $500 per year. Two Stanford Business School graduates, Daniel Spitzer and Justin Finnegan embarked upon walnut plantation project under the new company named Mountain Hazelnut Venture Limited.

The purpose of this project was to help the poor villagers enhance their income and to arrest the exodus from villages to cities.

The Bhutanese had never seen hazelnuts and they do not have any name for this nut in their language. They were afraid to switch from their traditional practice of planting maize, wheat and vegetables.

Mr Spitzer and Mr Finnegan explained the benefits of hazelnuts to the villagers, comparing to their traditional crops. They educated and trained them about plantation and nurturing practices. They assured the farmers that they will buy the total produce. Ten million samplings were distributed to 1,500 farmers and now they are putting up a hazelnut processing setup close to these fields. These trees will also address deforestation issues. The tree takes three years to bear fruit.

Tiny Bhutan now caters for three per cent of the world’s hazelnut production. The farmers are richer and a substantial percentage of Bhutanese are now engaged in this business. The influx towards cities is not only arrested but it is reversing. If we can produce strawberries in Sindh, lychees in Punjab and saffron in Balochistan, we can surely produce hazelnuts in Swat. If Bhutan can, we can too.

S. NAYYAR IQBAL RAZAKarachi