In Kech agricultural crops are categorised in two types, Rabi and Kharif, according to their cultivation seasons. Rabi crops are sown in winter and harvested in late winter or during early summer. Kharif crops are sown in summer and harvested in late summer or early winter. The major Rabi crops of the district include wheat, barley, muttar pulses, and various vegetables. Kharif crops in Kech include jowar, rice, melons, chillies, onion, guar seed, garlic, coriander, vegetables, and pulses including mash and moth. Fodder is cultivated throughout the year. All the fruits are produced in Kharif season. Date is the major agricultural produce of the district which is exported to other parts of the country.

Agricultural labour is predominantly male. However women are involved in allied activities like home-base date processing. Women’s labour is usually unpaid. Mostly the farming activities are performed by the land owner himself but tenants are also employed.

In Kech, agricultural land can be classified into irrigated and un-irrigated. Irrigation land has the permanent sources of water like karezes, kaurjos, tubewells and open surface wells. This land is mainly in Turbat, Buleda, Tump, Pidarak, and Dasht where most of the karezes, kaurjos and open surface wells are excavated and used for irrigation as well as for water sources for household use. Un-irrigated land, mostly in Kolwa and Dasht areas, is either rain-fed, locally called khushkaba or flood irrigated (sailaba). Irrigated land is predominantly used for production of fruits, wheat, rice, sesame, onion, chillies, coriander, garlic, vegetables and fodder. Some crops are cultivated in orchards. Crops like jowar, barley, wheat, pulses, melons and guar seed are cultivated in un-irrigated land.

The Agriculture Department has sub-divided the net potential area available for cultivation into current fallow, net sown, area sown more than once and culturable waste. In Kech, about 95 percent of the area is either not yet reported or not available for cultivation. The arable land constitutes only 2.2 percent of the total area. The major reasons are scarcity of water and unavailability of agricultural labour.

Kech is not a settled area. Land settlement started in 1981 but has not been completed yet. Only the Dasht sub-division has been settled, but this is also not officially announced as settled area. In this situation a cadastrial map and record of land settlement or land ownership is not available. This, sometimes, results in conflicts over land ownership. The land settlement itself has resulted in conflict between owners and tenants, who in the absence of owners claim, that the land they are cultivating is owned by them. In this way, some of the land owners were deprived of their land ownership. In Kech, land ownership is of two types. In irrigated areas communal ownership of land exists while individual ownership is predominant in un-irrigated areas. The reason is an economic one. Un-irrigated areas are flood irrigated for most parts therefore financial inputs for irrigation are minimal. While irrigated lands are irrigated by karezes or kaurjos, which require considerable amount of money or manpower to be excavated. Usually a group of farmers pool financial or human resources for excavation of karez or kaurjo. Usually the yield produced from land irrigated by the communal source of irrigation is distributed on equity basis.

According to the 1990 Census of Agriculture, about one third (66.8%) of the land-holdings sized below 5 hectares while only 12.8 percent of the farms were larger than 20 hectares. However in un-irrigated areas size of land holdings is relatively large.

Tenancy is not very much common as farm sizes are small and most of the farmers themselves work on their fields. Some large land and orchard owners employ tenants, locally called shareeks. Tenancy contracts are not formal and verbal understanding is considered enough. Mouroosi (inherited) tenancy is not practised in the district and it is usually the tenant, rather than the land owner, who discontinues the contract. Sometimes tenants make deals with more than one land owner, mainly due to scarcity of agricultural labour. In case of irrigated land, tenants get one third of the total yield, while in un-irrigated land the tenant gets one quarter share in the yield. In both cases all inputs are provided by the land owner. Another form of tenancy is also practised which is locally called lathbandi. In this type of tenancy the tenant provides all inputs and he retains three quarter of the total yield. If he provides half of the inputs then he gets half of the share of the total yield.

Agricultural statistics are collected primarily by a Field Assistant posted in every union council. An Agriculture Officer at district level is responsible to compile district data and send it to Statistics Wing of the Agriculture Department through the Assistant Director, Agriculture Extension. The Directorate General of Agriculture Department compiles and publishes this data in the form of Agriculture Statistics of Balochistan, every year. It has been a common complaint that the Statistics Wing of the Agriculture Department do not follow the data sent by the Assistant Directors.

After dates, wheat is the major agricultural produce of the area. It is cultivated mostly in irrigated areas. However it is cultivated in un-irrigated areas as well. Although average per hectare yield of wheat in Kech (2,050 kg/Ha.) is not at par with the average yield of wheat for the province of Balochistan (2,320 kg/Ha.), it fulfils the local needs to a great extent. Barley is another crop cultivated mostly in khushkaba lands. According to local sources, once rice has been a good crop in Kech district but now the area under rice cultivation has reduced, mainly due to minimum rainfall and unavailability of alternate irrigation sources. Different vegetables and fodder are cultivated throughout the year in the irrigated areas.

Dates, the major produce among fruits, are most frequently planted on irrigated land. About 40 types of dates are produced in the district, of which begum jangi, abedandan, khunzanbad, shakar, chupshak, chini, shangashkan, pashpag, shakri, peshna, kangan, sunt gorag, roghani, krooch, shakash, makli, mozawati, alini, rabai, jawansor, and dandari are most popular. Dates require continuous irrigation and a lot of care. The process of impregnation is unique in case of dates. Pollens from male date trees are sprinkled on female date tree manually. This requires more manpower as compared to other horticulture. Other important horticultural crops are mangoes and citrus fruit.

The time series data on average yields and total production show an inconsistent trend. Although total production has increased over the years, average yield is unpredictable. A significant increase (from 47,740 tonnes to 256,209 tonnes) has been observed in the total production of fruits during the years 1989-95 whilst the area under cultivation has also increased considerably (from 5,566 Ha. to 26,328 Ha.; about 475%). The production and average yield of wheat has increased gradually while production and yield of fodder, rice, pulses, and vegetables have fluctuating trends. The main reason behind this fluctuation seems to be the inconsistent statistics.

Men are the visible agricultural workers in Kech. Women take part in agriculture-allied activities inside the household boundaries. For example dates are dried by women at household level. Land owners themselves till the land and tenants are not easily available to be contracted. Although mechanisation, like use of tractors, threshers, and tubewells, is increasing, still most of the farming is performed through indigenous methods. For instance bullocks are used for inter-cropping in orchards.

According to the Agricultural Statistics 1994-95, the major source of irrigation in Kech is tubewell followed by kaurjos, a small water channel taken to the fields from a pit dug in the bed of a perennial flow to obtain under surface water. Other sources include open surface wells, from where water is taken out for irrigation with the help of bullocks using persian wheel or electric or diesel pumps. A small proportion of land is irrigated with karezes and springs etc., while the remaining khushkaba or sailaba land is dependent upon rain fall. The installation of tubewells in Turbat area has resulted in dry karezes. The total number of tubewells has increased in khushkaba lands over the past years but the numbers of functional tubewells has decreased, mainly due to increase in diesel price.

In 1993, it was estimated that there were 225 active karezes and 14 kaurjos being used for irrigation. According to the Agriculture Extension Department, in 1995-96, there were 325 active karezes in Kech district and 52 karezes were extinct. The Agricultural Statistics 1994-95 claim that 40.5 percent of the cultivated land in the district is being irrigated through kaurjos and only 1,000 hectares (2.0%) out of the total cultivated land is being irrigated by karezes, springs etc. This also supports the assumption that there is significant unreliability in agricultural statistics data.

Usually karezes are excavated and maintained on communal basis. Minor cleaning is done by the farmers themselves while Pushtun labour is hired for excavation and major cleaning of the karezes. The same is the case with kaurjos. As the quantity of water obtained through kaurjo decreases, the length of pit in the bed of a semi-perennial flow is increased to obtain more water. The water of the karez is divided according to the share of the inputs. Division of water is done in terms of time. The irrigation time from sunrise to sunset or from sunset to sunrise is called hangãm, while a small fraction of time is called tãs. The person who is responsible for the maintenance of the karez and the division of water is called sarishta and his assistant is called gazir. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in the late 1980’s, tried to improve the karez system by fixing infiltration galleries in karezes to increase the quantity of water, but it failed because the cleaning of the karezes became a difficult task. Although government has assisted farmers in tubewell installation through bank loans from the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan and through technical expertise, people in karez irrigated areas are very much reluctant to use tubewells. The main reason of reluctance is that tubewells will result in lowering of the water table and the karezes will be dried up. This has been observed in Turbat where all the karezes have dried due to installation of tubewells. Operation and maintenance costs of diesel powered tubewell are far higher that those of karezes. Therefore, most of the people do not want to switch from a cheaper method to an expensive one. New karezes are being excavated in Buleda, Tump, and Mand areas.

In un-irrigated tracts, flood irrigation is the major source of irrigation followed by tubewells. In flood irrigation, rain-water is harvested into the fields by embankment of fields against its flow. This provides enough water for cultivation of crops like wheat, jowar and barley. The Agricultural Statistics of Balochistan 1994-95 show a majority (85.7%) of the cultivated area as irrigated land. These statistics seem fake as there are hundreds of hectares which depend upon flood water irrigation. Most of the tubewells are diesel powered. These are used for irrigation when diesel, illegally imported from Iran, is cheap. At other times tubewells are not operated and farmers wait for rainfall. Here it is necessary to clarify a misunderstanding: open surface wells with diesel pumps are often also called tubewells. According to an estimate there are 1,560 open surface wells (in 1995-96) being used for irrigation. The Agricultural Statistics 1995-96 has mentioned only 260 wells and 1,691 tubewells. These data seem incorrect because according to a study by the USAID in 1993 there were 1,472 open surface wells in Kech for agricultural use. The government has assisted water management in collaboration with the World Bank under the On Farm Water Management Project (88% share by WB and 12% by GoB). The project has constructed lined water channels, to avoid wastage of water during irrigation, and water tanks (of 40,000 gallons capacity) for collection of water. The project has completed its third phase in December 1996. The first phase of the project was not implemented in Balochistan. In its second phase (1988-91), the project afforded all the construction costs for water tanks, but farmers were asked to share 25 percent of the total cost for water channels while the remaining (75%) was paid by the project. In the third phase, farmers were facilitated by giving them the opportunity to pay their share in instalments (40% advance, 60% in instalments). The project has completed about 100 schemes in its second and third phase.

The major agricultural machinery being used in the district includes tractors, threshers and tubewells. There has been a consistent increase in the number of private owned agricultural machines, specially tubewells (see Annex 6). The farmers in Kech seem considerate about increased mechanisation of agriculture as they are buying agricultural machinery, specially tractors and tubewells. The Agricultural Engineering Department provides bulldozers at the rate of rupees 300 per hour for levelling of agricultural lands and construction of embankments. The average use of dozers in Kech district is 45,000 hours per annum.

A total of 45 tonnes of chemical fertilisers, Urea, Nitro Phos, DAP, SOP, and NPK, were used in Kech district in 1994-95. There is no consistent pattern of fertiliser usage (see Annex 6). In 1991-92, 305.9 tonnes of fertilisers were used which decreased to 14.1 tonnes only in 1992-93. Pesticides are used for horticulture, vegetables, melons and fodder through ground sprays. Sometimes wheat seed is also treated with pesticides. In 1994-95, 1,644 kilograms of pesticides were used in the whole district. Supplies are made through the Department of Agriculture Extension and small dealers in the private sector. Fertilisers imported from Iran have not been taken into account here, as there is no record of this illegal import.

Unavailability of adequate road connections has incapacitated the farmers to bring their yield to the local market. Most of the produce is locally consumed. Only dates are exported to other parts of the country like Karachi, Quetta, and Sukkur. Vegetables are exported just to the neighbouring districts. Agricultural as well as horticultural produce is sold on farms, where a middle man buys the goods and further sells it out in the markets. A Date Factory was started at Turbat but after continuous loss it has been closed. The Strengthening Participatory Organisation supports a small project of date packing but it is still in its preparation phase.

There are no fixed prices of agricultural products. Official rates are totally invalid in Kech. The price of dates depends upon the crop situation in other date producing areas of the country. If there is a good crop of dates in other areas, the price of dates will be low in Kech and vice versa. Grain crops just meet the local needs, therefore organisations like PASCO are not active in the district.

As most of the agricultural produce is used domestically at local level, agriculture in general is not a significant source of income. The average yield of cash crops like rice and wheat is low hence farmers are unable to raise their economic status through agriculture. However, agriculture fulfils their nutritional needs to some extent. The date producers are relatively at an advantageous position as date is a profitable crop, but this also depends upon price of dates in other districts. Hardly any data are available to calculate the level of income of the farmer households in reference to agriculture, but based on the total volume of the various produces and the Quetta wholesale prices as indicated in the Agricultural Statistics of 1994 - 1995, the per capita income from agriculture is estimated Rs. 7,400 per capita for the year 1995, which for over 50% is solely dependent on the production of dates (see annex 6).

The Department of Agriculture Extension is providing assistance to farmers through dissemination of technical know-how and information regarding agriculture/horticulture. The department is also responsible for the implementation of On Farm Water Management Project. The department has developed a date farm at Turbat over an area of 40 hectares while another Date Research Centre is under the Balochistan Agriculture Research Institute, which is designed to be covering an area of 100 hectares; out of which 20 hectares has been planted with date trees. There are 39 demonstration plots for different crops and 110 new demonstration plots are under consideration. Under the departmental arrangements, a total of 1,909 hectares was sprayed to protect plants from various insects while 5,220 hectares of land were treated for rodent and weed control. Store fumigation was done on 7,362 cubic metres. The department has one seed and fertilisers depot at Turbat from where seeds and fertilisers are provided to the farmers at prices fixed by the government. There seems very little co-ordination between research activities by the federal government and the knowledge dissemination process by the provincial government through the Department of Agriculture Extension. Another problem is lack of viable communication between farmers and the department. The information given was that the department often gives advice to the farmers, but they rarely care about advice. One example is of date farming. In order to maximise the use of irrigated land, farmers cultivate date trees very closely whilst minimum recommended distance between two date trees is 6 metres. Moreover the farmers grow wheat or vegetables under these trees. Less distance between trees results in less fluorosynthesis and mix crops result in increased pests and diseases. Farmers ignore this information and continue close cultivation of trees and grow crops and vegetables under the date trees.

The Balochistan government and private sector are the main partners providing support structure to agricultural sectors. Federal government is also involved to some extent. The World Bank has provided assistance through On Farm Water Management Project.

Traditional crops are sown and innovative farming is non-existent in Kech. Although there is a potential for date processing industry, people are reluctant to invest in this sector. One reason is a failed experience of date processing factory at Turbat and the other is an atmosphere of non-co-operation and lack of trust on each other. For one reason or the other, people do not want to invest their money in partnerships.

Women are involved in allied agricultural activities. As this is done inside the houses it is not seen and no steps have been taken so far to profit women.

The regular supply of electricity can facilitate tubewells which in turn will increase irrigated land. This may help the development of the agricultural sector. There is a need for innovative and mechanised farming which can increase the average yield and total production.

Back to Kech