It depends how you look at the humble guar, or cluster bean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba):
It depends how you look at the humble guar, or cluster bean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba): as a drought-resistant relative of the pea cultivated in the dry regions of Asia and Africa and as a vegetable and fodder crop, and a source of guar gum; or as a delicacy if cooked in the right way. Guar is versatile. It grows as easily in arid parts dependant on rain as in areas fed by canal water. There are at least five popular recipes for cooking guar in Sindh’s rural and urban areas.
The guar crop needs little water—a shower of rain or onetime watering—and it grows without much difficulty thereafter without the use of fertilisers and pesticides.
Senior farmers believe that guar not only has the potential to keep the soil fertile, its seeds are left in the land after harvest, and it grows naturally in the first or second shower in the monsoon season.
Farmers in barrage areas prefer to cultivate cash crops like wheat, cotton, sugarcane, chillies and bananas because they are more profitable. It is harder for farmers in the rain-fed areas to give up guar, so they grow in their own lands as food for themselves and as fodder for their animals.
According to Karim Nawaz, an expert on natural resources management who has written two books on alternate irrigation systems in Pakistan, “guar is a profitable crop and it has large use in more than a hundred manufacturing items in the world besides producing food and fodder here.”
For example, he explained, guar gum is used for pharmaceutical purposes, such as in tablet coating. It has been considered in regard to both weight loss and diabetic diets. Guar powder is used for gunfire and explosion. Karim Nawaz favours promotion of spate irrigation system. He explains how the guar can be productive for food items in the rural areas.
He said government policymakers and Pakistan’s universities and research institutions are yet to understand guar’s importance and potential at a time when everyone is talking of food insecurity due to depletion of the country’s natural resources, mostly because acute shortage of water for irrigation. No specific study has been undertaken to make government institutions and the growers aware of the importance of cultivation of guar, he said.
Karim Nawaz, who hails from Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab, is in Hyderabad for conducting a study on the spate irrigation system and preparing suggestions for policymakers to promote natural crops consuming less water.
Niaz Sial, an agriculture engineer associated with the Research and Development Foundation (RDF), said the RDF has taken the initiative to promote greater growth of natural products, including guar in areas which don’t regularly receive rain in the monsoons. “We have included guar in kitchen gardening to inspire communities which do not have access to canal water.” Spate irrigation can be a useful source of irrigating lands and help farmers store rainwater on their own and use it, he said.
He said that his organisation is documenting natural rainwater routes in Dadu and Jamshoro districts and measuring its catchments. Some natural streams flow into Keenjhar Lake while others flow into the sea via the River Indus.
Niaz Sial said guar is an easy cultivable crop because it does not need fertiliser and pesticides, and the guar crop works as a natural fertiliser for the soil.
He said the government should adopt the spate irrigation system to bring more areas under cultivation during the monsoon season and thus reduce threats to food security among local communities.
The RDF’s finding shows that locally the annual product of guar in Pakistan averages from 50,000 to 110,000 tons. The price is witnessing ups and down in local market. He said the government should promote cultivation of smaller crops, which only local farmers can cultivate through an exact process.
The communities there have an indigenous water-storing methodology for use in cultivation. They believe that moisture is enough to feed the crop and provide nutrients to the soil.
Experts say the guar seed has a variety for different climatic zones, where water availability and quality is different. For instance, the guar cultivated in Thar is from a seed different from the one the farmers sow in the Kacchho, Kohistan and canal areas.
As well as neighbouring India, is also cultivated in some parts of the United States. In Pakistan, guar crops can be seen in scattered pieces of lands in Punjab and Balochistan, as well as Sindh. The areas for guar cultivation include the Thar Desert, Achhro Thar, Kascho and Kohistan in Dadu and Jamshoro districts and in canal areas like Matiari, Hyderabad, Badin and Sanghar.
Experts believe that due to a lack of initiative on the government’s part, more rainwater goes waste through the waterways. They propose small, low-cost embankments at watercourses to help farmers grow smaller crops, which usually consume less water.
Guar has a market in Karachi too, where guar is bought up in large quantities for export. The largest market for guar gum is in the food industry, which food manufacturing companies use for food preservation. In the rural areas guar is preserved through various methods for use off season.
An interesting thing about guar is that because of the rich nutrients in it the straw is costlier than that produced by such products like wheat, mullet, maize and rice. Which is why cattle farmers mostly prefer guar fodder for their animals. Traders used to export guar seed to markets abroad, but they don’t do so any more: these days they are manufacturing guar powder for sale. A decade ago a 100-kg bag was sold for Rs5,000-7000 in the local market, in 2013 it fetched R50,000.
The writer is a staff member
