The argument on water has been in respect of mega projects. No one really has tried to bother as to what happens to supply of vegetables in the city. What kind of water and what quantum of it the vegetables growers require.

Where there is shortage of water vegetable and fruit growing has to be more intensive and scarcer water is to be captured by plants.

Unless we can start doing this for the avid city dwellers they are going to be caught in a peculiar bind in which they will find that the price of vegetables would be beyond their reach.

Over the last three years vegetable prices have shown a marked increase. From a starting price of Rs20 they are now in the range of Rs60 to 65 per kg. I had always advocated that nutrition could be handled via vegetables but I am now having serious doubts. The factors that militate against supply side vegetables are to do with the way Pakistan’s agriculture is organised.

The vegetable markets now harbour a trading mafia and that mafia will not let any one have a reasonable price for their product. Whereas the end wholesale price may be what I have stated, the purchase at the farm gate is normally 25 per cent of that price.

Curiously enough, the limiting factor in vegetable growing is not fertiliser but water. Take any year except the present one and one finds that there is nearly drought like conditions available. Six years out of eight years is the rough average for water scarcity. So one has to make do with whatever is available in the short run. When water is scarce, the inter-cropping or companion planting may become necessary.

In areas of Fata and Lakhi Marwat where the quantum of water is limited, the water used for the hygiene of the body may be used. I had come across this in Germany and Japan where urban wastewater from the households is utilised.

In Germany some apartment blocks are using recycled water to a great effect. The water comes down the water plumbing that has green plants in them that purify the water.

It was in Balochistan as we made our way from Bagh to the Iranian border that I witnessed stream of muddy water on one side and pure water coming from the other side. The difference was that mint was growing in that water. This was mint aquatica- a natural species found in that part of the world. I have since experimented with other mint varieties and found that this is an effective way to cleanse water.

More importantly, what is our take on efficiency of plants and their use of water efficiently? Vegetables first and foremost and it is possible to classify vegetables in to three types. The first group requires continuous water. The plants in this category are the greens, lettuce, spinach and cauliflower, onions melons and cucumbers. They require and do well with early morning watering.

In case of onions, the watering required is for taste. Onions have another quality and that has to do with the tolerance for droughts. The onion that is produced with less water is bound to be bitterer. If water is available then the sweeter form of onion does require more water.

The second category performs well without water but does require water only at the flowering and fruiting stage. Once tomatoes and peas are established they don’t need water at all until the flowering stage. If there is excessive heat and the plant start wilting then supplemental water needs to be given.

Withholding water develops a tendency on the part of the plant to have deep roots allowing the plants to access nutrients from the soil that were untapped before. Sweet corn is the most drought tolerant plant and requires copious watering at the time of teaseling. That is the time that rain can be most useful.

If one sees the eating habits, then corn has been the staple food of the areas where there is less water. NWFP comes to mind as sweet corn chapatis were invariably cooked for the owner of the house.

This extra water improves pollination, ear formation and filling of grains in the cob. Coarse grains, like millet, sorghum and barley, in water scarce areas are also an option for the country and the farmers.

The third category requires water only rain round the year. The crops in this category are carrots, beats, and radish to name only a few. The vegetable farmers have to determine how far they can test this hypothesis. These are root crops that photosynthesise slowly and simply outgrow the drought season. Water deprivation encourages the plant to bud and/or fruit. There are other vegetable plants that simply wait out any drought that happens to be there.

There are besides miniature vegetables and plants that are water use efficient. Who should be introducing these new concepts in vegetable growing and at the same time disseminating this information to the vegetable growers? It is the same old thing. If one leaves it to the market place it will never happen. So new variety introduction is dependent on the public sector and the popularity of these introductions and they’re marketing very much a public sector function. Having said as much these miniature varieties can be in existing vegetables (like Tom Thumb in lettuce or baby corn which are a mere four inches in length or cherry tomatoes). There are midget cucumbers, dwarf head cabbage and water melons all maturing in far less time and than their other normal counterparts.

These vegetables advantage is that they can be harvested or a good part of it could possibly be harvested before the onset of drought or drought like conditions, the idea being to err on the right side of the productive function.

The fruit trees similarly can be miniaturised without hampering the quality or the quantity of the fruit. The mango plant is now no higher than one’s shoulder. The mango plants of yesteryears have to be replaced by plants that are as tall as one’s shoulder. Imagine the advantages of harvesting of mango when the plant is that high.

The density of the plants increase and as against the earlier version of a 35 to 30 feet high mango plant one now has a plant that is only four to five feet high. Harvesting is easier there is less fruit fall because of weather conditions; all in all a desirable situation.

The first time that I introduced a dwarf mango plant was in the mid-eighties and I had brought 100 plants to Pakistan from Hyderabad Deccan. The plant was seven feet high and was the genetic selection process carried out by one of the sons of the Nizam of Hyderabad. Since then the genetic creation has been replaced by a pruning system that can make any plant dwarf.

The intensity of plantations increases from 90 to 475 plants per acre. A miniature fruit plant is an efficient user of water. The case for dwarf fruit plants is made out. I was experimenting with the jaman, pear, figs, citrus and other fruit plants.

The world of agriculture does not have to be stagnant on the basis of historical knowledge. It has to go forward and create new opportunities for the urban farmer, the peri-urban farmers and the consumers.

So liberalise your thoughts. The shortages have to be removed and that requires no dogma and no doctrinaire. What happens to us is different? We use different concepts at different times to justify our actions or the lack of these actions. This is done selectively and in a contradictory manner. So that public policy can be justified and or unjustified on the basis of the actions of the few. Public policy is thus ill served by self-serving actions.

This summer has been very wet. It will also lead to increase in pest actions, as they love moist conditions. So do fungi. Heat and drought conditions can be helpful as these eliminate these production constraints. Dryness is not all that bad. The variations in temperature and production conditions may be seen as a challenge to activate human ingenuity.

The human mind is a miracle mind and therefore should not be allowed to stagnate into obsolete thinking. Conditions provide you with opportunities so make the most of them. Nature provides all kinds of opportunities to those who are willing to take risk.