Inclement weather delays crops' harvesting

[/caption] MASTUJ, July 21: Most of the time this year, the weather in Chitral, especially in its upper parts, has remained inclement and the locals fear that their crops would not be ready for harvesting on time. “Every year in the month of July we used to start harvesting of wheat but this year the crop is still green and will not be ready for cutting even after a couple of weeks,” said Mohammad Ayub of Brep while talking to chitraltoday.net here. He said the month of June was famous for blossoming of Shunjur Ispru (the Russian olive) but this year the flowers on the wild trees remained in full bloom till the third week of July. But he expressed delight over the fact that due to absence of sunny days villages which have no glaciers on their Gols would get plenty of water till the autumn, adding in sunny days all the snow on the mountain tops melted within days and the farmers faced acute shortage of water right after the month of June. Another resident of Yarkhun, Sultan Hayat, said this year the valley had bumper crops but due to the inclement weather the yields may not be as good. “However, we will have no problem in stocking fodder for our cattle,” he added. He also said that the not-so-sunny weather was also good as the chances of flooding remained low. “Besides, our hydropower stations are also working normally as when there is flooding in the streams, their channels got washed away, plunging the villages into darkness for weeks,” he added.–Mohammad Hussain]]>