Agriproduction Marketing

 

  In Pakistan, vegetables are the integral part of the cropping pattern but occupy only 2-3 % of the total cultivated area. Almost 50 kinds of vegetables, cucumber and tomatoes being one of them, are grown in winter and summer seasons across the country. However, in hilly areas winter vegetable are also grown alongside summer, which are called off-season that fetches high income in the market. Gilgit Baltistan is one of those areas where off-season vegetables can be grown successfully.  Vegetable crops are very important due to its higher yield potential, return and nutritional value and suitability for small land holders. In Pakistan, the daily per capita intake of vegetables is low as about 100 grams compared to the recommended consumption of about 285 grams.               Tomato tunnel crop in Ghizer, GB In the year 2014, a total yield of 20889.64 MT of vegetable (excluding potato) was produced in Gilgit Baltistan (GB) without mentioni...

  Malakand Division is a remote corner of Pakistan, which is situated in the extreme north of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. The Division consists of Districts of Swat, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Bunir, Chitral, Shangla, Bajaur and Malakand.  The altitude of the division ranges from 600 - 7854 meters. Agriculture is the bedrock of the division as the population is overwhelmingly dependent on it. The whole division is mountain-locked geographically. A vast number of vegetable crop species, onion being one of them, are grown for subsistence and commercial purposes. The importance of onion crop can be judged from the fact that Malakand division contributed 92.21 % (145068 tons) to the total provincial production and 89.09% (7872 hectares) to the total area planted in the year 2011-12.  Although, onion is important commercially for the farmers of this area but they face some chronic problems like non-availability of good quality seed, prevalence of insect pests and diseases and...