Swat violence telling on valley’s Economy

The ongoing fighting in Swat district and the imposition of curfew is causing loss of millions of rupees to farmers and fruit dealers besides rendering thousands of labourers jobless.Fruits like peaches and plums are ready for harvest and were being marketed when the fresh round of fighting broke out recently. Some early varieties of apples were also ready for harvest and others would ripen and available in the market by the end of this month. But the ongoing operation and militants’ attacks have been badly affecting the transportation, packing and marketing of the fruits, causing loss of millions of rupees to the district economy.Approximately 30 to 40 per cent area, especially in Matta, Kabal, Khwazakhela and Kohistan, is under fruit orchards and provide employment to 70 per cent people, informed Dr Sher Muhammad, a former director of Institute of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine (IRNUM), Peshawar, who belongs to Swat and is based in Peshawar.Sher said Swati farmers preferred planting fruit saplings as it provided them ready cash. He said orchards provide job opportunities for labourers and dealers. Thousands of people also earn their livelihood by spraying and pruning fruit trees, packing the plucked fruit and transportation. “They were able to feed their families by doing different jobs in the orchards during the season but the uncertain situation now has rendered them jobless,” he lamented.The situation has badly affected the peoples’ income that is based on agriculture, he added. Dr Sher Mohammad said artillery shelling was also damaging the orchards and delay in shifting was leading to waste of the fruits like peaches, plums, apricots and cherry, whose shelf life is very short. Seeking anonymity, a landlord in Swat told The News the ongoing operation, curfew and militancy were causing millions of rupees loss to the farmers and fruit dealers. “Normally 500 to 600 trucks transporting fruit used to leave Swat district daily for down country during the harvest season. But fruit export has almost stopped due to violence. Peaches and plums are being wasted because their shelf life is very short. I had employed 1,500 labourers in my orchards and they had to abandon work due to shelling and attacks,” he added.The landlord put the loss to the district fruit-based economy in billions, saying due to blowing of bridges in bomb blasts, blockade of roads, attacks, shelling and curfew, the transportation of fruit out of the district has come to a halt.Fruit orchards and agriculture are main source of income of the people of the district and the prevailing situation has affected it badly, he added. Not only landowners but also dealers and labourers are earning their livelihood from these orchards, he said. The landlord said many a fruit dealers who had invested by buying orchards were crying for their loss while hundreds of families had been deprived of their lone source of income. Not only local farmers and labourers but fruit dealers from down country would have no option but to leave investment in agriculture and orchards if the situation further continued, he went on to say.