Agriculture dept ignores upper Chitral

CHITRAL, May 30: The farmers in Mastuj have decried the continued absence of agriculture officers and other technical staff in their area for the last seven years which has adversely affected the productivity of cereal crops, vegetables and fruits. Haji Sher Aziz of Mastuj told this correspondent that the agriculture officer was transferred in 2007 and the agriculture inspector in 2011 and presently the whole area, consisting of three union councils, was managed by only one junior official. He said the union councils of Mastuj, Laspur and Yarkhun are known for high productivity of apple, bean and potato where 100 percent households derived sustenance from farming. Mr. Aziz said it was a joke that the agriculture department had posted only one junior official of grade-5 to oversee three union councils. He said the official was basically appointed there to manage the fruit nursery farm of the department. “He has no expertise and no time as well no resources to cover the vast area”, he said, adding the agriculture office remained locked when the only field assistant performed duty in the nursery farm. He said that no fertilizers, pesticides, standardized seeds were supplied to the farmers on time which had substantially reduced the volume of production while outbreak of diseases had also occurred in the areas during the past five years. “I faced a loss of lakhs of rupees during the past three years as my apple trees were attacked by pests of mysterious nature but the agriculture department did not come to my rescue and there were hundreds of affected farmers in the area,” he said.– Zahiruddin]]>