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Potato Growers of Garam Chashma valley fear spoiling of their product

By Zahiruddin

CHITRAL; The recent floods have inflicted loss of millions of rupees on the potato-growing farmers in Garam Chashma valley of Chitral where a bulk product of potato has started decaying due to the blockade of road. Talking to chitraltimes.com here on Saturday, a number of farmer including Zardullah, Adina Khan, Charshanba Khan and others said that the road from Chitral to Garam Chashma valley measuring 45 kilometres has been washed away by the river flood. They said that they cultivated potato on commercial scale, as the soil of the area was found best congenial for potato as pointed out by the agriculturists of Aga Khan Rural Support Programme. They said that they got a bumper crop of potato over the years which was also known for its large size, whitish and red colour with high degree of taste. The farmers said that they had switched over to the potato crop giving up all other which fetched a high dividend for them and it had raised their standard of life tangibly. “Three of my four sons used to go to the down districts in winter season to seek employment as labour but now they are working in their potato fields and are earning enough to lead a happy life”, one of them said. Expressing their deep concern, the farmers said that the whole lot of their product is likely to be spoiled, as there were no cold storage facilities. They said that the traders used to rush to the area in the harvesting season and transported the product to the local and national markets but this year it was not possible, as one has to walk of feet for more than ten hours to reach Chitral city. They said that a small fraction of the commodity is transported to the city by the porters on their backs but it proves too costly for them. The fare of 40-kg bag of potato to the city was 40 rupees while the porters charge as high as 300 rupees who use mountainous routes for the same quantity, they observed. They said that the decomposition of the commodity takes place rapidly once it is harvested and exposed to open air. Meanwhile, the people of Karimabad valley face the like problem of transportation of their apples and bean crops to the local market for want of road infrastructure. The valley is totally severed from the rest of the district when the flash flood washed away 35 kilometres of its road and four jeep able suspension bridges. The local traders of vegetables said that the valley provided beans to the local market for three months starting from July which is cheap in price and superb in quality. They said that in the absence of supply of potato and beans from the local areas, the commodities are short in the market and it goes beyond the capacity of a common man if transported from the lower areas.