Prof. Rahmat Karim Baig
As most of the people of my generation and others, who saw the light of the day in the 70s and 80s, know better than me that our present education system has created a large number of graduates without particular skills. They aspire to enter government jobs but there is little scope in that sector due to financial mismanagement and extravagant official protocols as well failure to establish industrial units to create job opportunities for the new generation.
It is because our education system does not open channels for the students having different aptitudes for various skills. No opportunity is given to students to choose a certain discipline for his future in the initial stage of their schooling.
No guidance or psychological tests are conducted in the school level to hunt talent for numerous fields and grab posts in emerging sciences. The graduates focus on government jobs but due to political instability that side is dark.
As for as Chitral is concerned we have successfully created a large number of graduates without proper skills and one of the causes of unemployment leads to suicides. Joblessness is a curse and its bitter taste is less known to general public but it is a very poisonous stage of mental consciousness at that stage of a young men or women who face unemployment and feel the criticism or poor respect shown by the members of the society.
We as Chitralis have got the bad habit of passing remarks on others and spread rumours about jobless youth. It is always biting and hits the hearts of the unemployed youth and aggravates their frustration emotionally, psychologically and even physically.
In order to alleviate this deterioration of the very asset in the form of youth we make negative remarks instead of structuring this grave social issue. I would dare to point out that Horticulture should be offered to the jobless youth to engage them in a positive direction.
The soil of Chitral is rich and good for fruit production. In the current environmental degradation Horticulture has to be promoted and for that purpose fruit Nurseries have to be created at VC level all over Chitral by the department concerned as well as by the NGOs to introduce various varieties of fruits beside the traditional fruits.
These include Almond and Pistachio which have no nurseries in Chitral but these nuts have high market value. The Agriculture department should be given the task with enough funds to introduce saplings of these nuts.
Almonds are seen only in few places but not grown on commercial scale and Pistachio is less known here. Sources say that Pistachio needs a climate like walnut. It grows up to 3000m high altitude and stands to -10 degree cold in winters so it can be developed in Chitral with some information from the experts.
Local fig is also an item of horticulture but the best quality big size brown fig should also be introduced which brings good price. The growth of Horticulture will engage a section of the people of Chitral who inherently like orchards of fruit trees. It is a peculiar nature of the inhabitants of Chitral to plant fruit trees compared to the people living outside our district.
The apple and pear trees of certain famous villages have declined due to poor knowledge of the particular trees but introduction of the above mentioned nut trees can replace the loss of apple and Shoghori variety of pears. Cherry also be included in this campaign as it gives good yield and ripens earlier than other fruits.
New avenues have to be explored for the agriculturists and our coming generations. All the children of the coming days cannot be doctors, engineers, CSS officers –of course a small number shall ascend to that position but the IQ & EQ of all is not the same and opportunities also vary so a good number of our youth will see their career in horticulture as our land is fertile and market demand is rising day by day.
