HYDERABAD: Ajeet Thakur, a sharecropper, standing in a rapeseed-mustard crop, surrounded by yellow flowering plants, looks quite optimistic about the yield.
He believes, since the land on which the crop has been cultivated this year is degraded and tainted with salinity, yield may be around 12-15 maunds (40kg) per acre, which is enough for him. Otherwise, the mustard crop can produce more than 25 maunds per acre, depending on soil fertility and care.
Thakur claims his family has been producing mustard for generations. He knows about its ups and downs in terms of weather phenomena, per acre yield, and it being given low priority by farmers, right now.
He said he failed to understand as to why farmers had put it at low priority despite its value in the local market being a much loved food item for village folk as well as some of their urban counterparts.
He has cultivated mustard crop on four acres of land in Landhi neighbourhood of Hyderabad city suburbs. He stays in the fields the whole day, takes care of the crop, and feeds his animals.
He believes that increasing land degradation all around is a big cause of concern for farmers, who are unable to maintain soil fertility to increase or even maintain per acre yield.
However, this crop has a natural potential thrive on dry land and it doesn’t either need a lot of water.
There are small pieces of lands covered with mustard oilseed crop near major wheat crops almost in all areas. It is a common understanding among sharecroppers that landlords do not consider mustard as a priority crop.
They prefer major crops, both cash and food ones. They can only spare a piece of extra land to cultivate mustard, depending on the availability of water.
Altaf Mahesar, who leads a farmers’ network in Dadu district, while talking to The News, lamented the decline of this valuable oilseed crop.
Mahesar believes it is being cultivated in the entire province at a small scale. “Gone are the days when it was the important crop to have edible oil for domestic consumption and oilseed cakes and meal for animals,” Mahesar said. He added that farmers had shifted priorities after the emergence of new cash crops.
He, sharing the background of crop, said Nawabshah had been the hub of this oilseed before and after the partition of subcontinent.
“Back then, Sindh used to produce more oil crops for export to different countries, but now reports show Pakistan is paying the second largest bill on importing edible oil,” Mahesar said. This is because the government was not interested in promoting these crops that could help reduce the oil import bill, he said.
Sajjad Morio, who has experience of working with different food processing firms in Sindh province, said Kunri oil mill attracts mustard seed producers preferably and produces variety of oils.
About the mustard farming in Kunri area in Umerkot district, Morio said landlords had set priorities to cultivate major crops to earn profit and have grains stocks.
“Only a few landlords prefer to cultivate mustard on extra pieces of land if they find can manage to irrigate it,” he added. Morio further said because Kunri, being the major market of food products, mostly chili and edible oils, was now experiencing worst water scarcity. “Farmers are crying against water shortage to use their lands,” he said.
Farmers from rice producing Badin district say they usually used to cultivate mustard in rice fields, as this crop grows on moisture and did not need more water. However, this year the rice sowing itself was much delayed due to late arrival of water in canals and the crop was looks pathetic, the farmers said.
They added that thus mustard crop could be seen growing at a small scale in scattered areas of the district.
Gulab Shah, another farmer of coastal area of Thatta district, recalls that the last time they had a bumper mustard crop during the devastating floods in the River Indus in 2010. “There was more water and almost all area farmers had sown mustard seed and received more yields, beyond their expectation,” they said.
Shah believes that this organic mustard crop usually is being produced in catchment area of the river.
The riverine area farmers cultivate it on moist land as it does not need much water. Similarly, a major part of coastal area in Indus Delta is river catchment and thus it gets benefits whenever the floods come.
He said the mustard leaves are considered nutrient-rich food stuff (sarsoon ka saag), which the rural people like more.
Now the farmers in coastal area also depend on tube wells for irrigation water and cannot risk cultivating mustard. Instead of that they prefer to cultivate vegetables and other cash crops.
Some growers, who run seed business in Tando Allahyar and Mirpurkhas, believe that now is the time to introduce multiple crops in the face of climate change and acute water scarcity and increasing demand of water for each crop.
They advocate introduction of multiple crops like growing mustard with sugarcane as they deem it will be feasible to get yield from both the crops.
The elderly farmers, with age old experience, said the mustard crop had nitrogen enriching capabilitiies and could rehabilitate deficient soil. “If someone continues cultivating mustard-rapeseed crop on deficient soil it will help regain its fertility,” the veterans said.
Leading researchers in agriculture said after cotton, rapeseed-mustard is the second most important source of oil in the country. Mustard is cultivated over an area of 307,000 hectares with an annual production of 233,000 tons and contributes about 17 percent to the domestic production of edible oil.
Reports show the area under major crops like wheat, cotton, sugarcane, and rice is situated in Indus basin. There is less established cropping system for oilseed crops in the country. However, some pockets for sunflower such as rice-sunflower-rice and cotton-sunflower-cotton are emerging.
The researchers believe oilseed crops have a huge potential to produce and fulfill the domestic needs.
Edible oil is one of the important commodities of everyday use. Pakistan has been constantly and chronically deficient in its production.
About 70 percent of the domestic requirements are met through imports.
Since early 1970s its import increased at the rate of 12.5 percent annually and the trend will further not only continue but will also get worsen with increase in population.
This oil has health benefits to lower deadly diseases like cardiac and cancer risks. It is also powerful a natural stimulant that improves digestion system.
There are three major zones of oil mills including Kunri, Kotri and Karachi, which need more raw materials (oilseeds) to produce high quality oil for domestic consumption.
It now depends on the policymakers to offer incentives with subsidies to farmers for promoting these oil seed crops, mainly much ignored rapeseed-mustard.
