Dera Ghazi Khan, commonly known by its abbreviation DG Khan, is a 15th-century dwelling, which seems to have refused to outgrow its history. The district, along with its two offspring — Dera Ismail (DI) Khan and Rajanpur, which were later carved out of it — are still stuck in their historical groove if their agriculture, livestock and industrial profiles are something to go by.

Being a floodplain of the Indus River, the district has fertile lands but has stuck to a two-crop (wheat-cotton) pattern for decades, if not centuries. Its industry, which was mainly based on cotton, is now giving way to housing colonies because cotton is receding in terms of farmers’ preference and acreage. Its sociology is a curious case since it is still ruled by the casts that founded it some six centuries ago and have lorded over it ever since. The district, perhaps, needs a break.

Its agriculture represents most of its woes. Out of a total cultivable area of one million acres, wheat and cotton take 627,000 and 236,000 acres respectively or 86 per cent of the total area. The rest of it is rice and sugarcane, completing the agricultural reality of the district. This has been its agricultural pattern for ages.

Cotton has been losing some of its area over the last five years — from 270,000 acres in 2014 to the current 236,000 — but it still has huge acreage because the farmers have nothing else to do with their lands.

Agriculture experts, however, see huge potential in the district if its fossilised patterns are altered. Since River Indus runs through it, around ten kilometres area on either side of the river presents a huge possibility for orchards, as was done by farmers on the banks of Chenab River in the neighbouring Muzaffarghar district where mango orchards have established themselves.

Local agriculturists insist that in addition to mango the local ecology also favours peaches, pears and anjeer (common fig). Why have farmers missed the possibility? One can hardly explain this failure.

Families are big — in political power and financial might — and landholdings even bigger, thus they have no motivation or patience to develop the decades-long process of orchards or grow vegetables and are stuck in a two-crop rut

The relatively mild weather also makes the area propitious for vegetables. The only mentionable initiative in the last few decades in the vegetable list is that some farmers have started developing onion seed — brought in from Sindh — and are trying to indigenise it. And with onion ends the vegetable experiment. Why have local planners and farmers not been able to benefit from this natural gift? No one really knows!

Since DG Khan District is tucked between River Indus on the left side and Koh-e-Suleman — a range of barren hills that top 10,000 feet — on the right, it has equally massive potential for the olive plants that Punjab has been experimenting at a much lower altitude in the Pothohar region for the last seven years. DG Khan has missed this opportunity despite being a documented olive producer with a yield double that of Pothohar. In DG Khan, oil extraction is up to 30pc against the 12-13pc rate in Pothohar.

“Even wild olive here, which grows without any care, yields over 10pc yield — an average closer to olive grown under full official care by progressive farmers in other regions,” says a local farmer.

Dr Muhammad Tariq, who heads the national olive initiative, concedes the difference and says that the area is included in the next phase of the programme. “We are dispatching teams shortly to the area to explore all possibilities and document it for the next phase of the national initiative,” he says.

One explanation why DG Khan missed all those opportunities perhaps lies in its sociology: families are big — in political power and financial might — and landholdings even bigger. “Why should they be bothering about these small initiatives? Look at the list of people it produced. Ex-President Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari hailed from here, so did Asif Saeed Khosa — former chief justice of Pakistan. Current Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar belongs to the district and so did Dost Muhammad Khosa, former chief minister. His father Zulfiqar Khosa was governor of Punjab and the other Khosa (Latif Muhammad) also made it to the list of governors. You think they have time, motivation and patience to develop the decades-long process of orchards and make money growing vegetables? All these niches failed to develop because there are no local examples,” explains Aftab Gabol — a resident from the area.

Since agriculture remained archaic, the industry refused to follow. Two big factories in the area — DG Khan Cement and Al-Ghazi Tractors — were established in the early 1980s under an incentive scheme that offered tax rebate. The next 40 years did not see any comparable investment. In the next four decades, much smaller industries like ginning factories (74), flour mills (20) and rice mills (60) monopolised the scene. “Lack of trained labour explains industrial poverty,” says Mohsin Leghari, Irrigation Minister of Punjab, who also belongs to the area. The cement factory was set up because the raw material is in good supply. Since then, the lack of skills has bedevilled the area and deterred industrial development. Not even a textile mill was set up in DG Khan despite cotton being a major crop. All of them went to Faisalabad because trained labour was available there. So, it is all about labour and its supply, he says.

“As cotton loses its economic sheen, most of these factories, which owned huge tracts of land, have started building housing colonies on them,” claims Malik Tehseen, adding, “some have done it, others are doing and still others are in the process. Next few years may see these ginning factories disappear largely.”

The potential for livestock is even more if local topography, ecology, livestock population and the living of common people is considered. But it also remains a neglected and underdeveloped part. It has a local cattle breed called “Dajal,” named after a village in the district. Its males are known for their big size which makes them prized animals for the meat chain. Since females’ yield very little milk, it has not become a commercial success beyond local trade.

Two local goat breeds (White Beetle and Barbari) also belong to a premium category of smaller animals. Their population, despite all official neglect, underlines their potential. The district has 1.35m bigger animals — just over one million cattle and the rest are buffaloes.

Its smaller animal population is huge: 3.4m, with 2.1m goats and 1.24m sheep. This massive population survives because the district has a huge forest area (over 60,000 acres) that provides free grazing grounds.

Livestock is part of local greetings in the Baloch tradition. In social meetings, when asked how one has been, the common answer is: “God has been kind, it rained and animals are happy.” Animals are part of life because there is no other source of cash, income and livelihood. However, despite this massive potential, there has neither been genetic improvement nor efforts to build the local market nor to connect them to overseas’ market. The district seems to be surviving on its own as far as its human and livestock population is concerned.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, May 17th, 2021