Before the crack of dawn, rose-pickers from Wanki Wasi to Hatri in Hyderabad district, leave their homes for the rose fields. For the last four decades, roses are being cultivated in this ‘rose-belt’ spread out over 1,200 hectares of land, which was once the barren remains of a battlefield known as Miani Jo Maidan (Battlefield of Miani).

According to Qadir Bux Nizamani, in his book Jang Miani [The Battle of Miani], the Talpur army led by Mir Nasir Khan Talpur fought its last battle here in 1843, against the British army led by Sir Charles Napier. The Talpur army lost some 5,000 soldiers. Some 231 British soldiers were injured, while 39 British officers and soldiers who lost their lives were also buried at Miani.

A monument to the Miani Battle is a grim reminder of the spilled blood that turned the soil red some 178 years ago. Now, however, the red colour is above the soil. And where once used to be an unmistakable whiff of burnt ammunition, there is only the heady fragrance of roses.

It all began when, in a region in which wheat, sugarcane, rice and cotton were being cultivated, a landowner, the late Ali Murad Khan Leghari, wanted to experiment with a new crop. Being an avid rose lover, he decided to plant roses on one acre of his land.

Seeing Leghari’s successful rose harvest, another landowner, Abdullah Khan Mashori, dedicated a few acres of his land also to roses. Realising that roses were a low-investment yet profitable crop, other landowners followed suit.

Presently, there are 500 farms/ land-owners involved in the business of rose cultivation, employing some 18,000 flower-pickers who work as daily wagers. Six rose-pickers work per acre of land. Some of them are as young as 10 years old and they start their work picking roses while it is still dark, often carrying a small torch to see the way.

Roses are cultivated over 1,200 hectares in Hyderabad District in what used to be a battleground. Life may be no bed of roses for the rose-pickers but a potentially lucrative floricultural opportunity exists if the government would pay some attention

“We pick roses before sunrise as the flowers are sensitive and wither quickly if the sun comes up,” says 35-year-old Sakeena, wrapped in a shawl to keep the chill out.

Freshly-picked roses are weighed in 10kg baskets, which the traders buy at a fixed rate of 40 rupees per kg. With no modern cold storage in the region, the roses are dipped in iced water before starting their journey to markets in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Jamshoro and Nawabshah districts. “We rush to put the baskets in the vehicles that leave for different cities at 7am,” adds Sakeena.

The rose-picking season peaks from October to March, when the temperatures are relatively lower. After March, when the temperatures rise to 40C, rose production decreases, because rose plants are sensitive to temperature. For the rest of the year, the rose-pickers also work with other crop harvests or go away to the cities to find jobs as daily wagers. Women supplement their incomes through making rallis (patchwork quilts) and embroidery.

“Fertiliser companies push us to use inorganic fertilisers,” says Seengar Ali, a rose farmer. “Despite producing bigger harvests, these harm the soil, because they contain chemicals. Later, we had to install tube wells for sucking out saline water from the land, which took months. We now use organic fertilisers every alternate year, which reduces salinity, makes the land more fertile and increases production by 10 percent. I also encourage other farmers to use natural compost.”

Rose plantation owners believe that, in the last decade, climate change has led to a reduction in rose yield by 20 percent. Last year’s heavy rains were disastrous for rose farmers because roses need relatively less water to grow. Rain also damages delicate petals and anthers.

Ismail Kumbhar, a professor at Sindh Agriculture University in Tando Jam, highlights another factor that has affected rose cultivation. “Land previously used for rose cultivation is now being sold for commercial purposes,” he says. “Rose farming needs trained farmers to enhance value addition and quality, but the university does not have a facility for such training. Cold storage units to maintain the freshness of picked flowers and safety kits for workers are also not available,” Khumbar adds.

Muhammad Azeem, 45, has been picking roses for more than 15 years. “The broker pays us the set price for roses, which is 40 rupees per kg,” says Azeem. “The maximum I can make is 400 rupees a day.”

Instead of being paid daily, Sakeena, who has enrolled her two children in school, earns a set monthly income of a mere 2,000 rupees. “While picking roses, our fingers are freezing and often thorns prick us. I don’t want my children to do this hard labour with little return. I want a better life for them.”

As climate change, the unfettered use of fertilisers and increasing salinity of the land has affected rose harvests, farmers such as Sadam Shah are experimenting with new business models. Shah has set up a small farm with 20 labourers, where he recycles rose plantation waste.

“I figured that waste from rose cultivation can be utilised as a source of income,” says Shah. “Broken branches, that were previously either used as fuel or would end up in garbage, are collected and replanted to grow new rose plants. The leaves and petals are used to make organic compost.”

Shah fills this organic rose compost in polythene bags to cultivate papaya seedlings. “Papaya cultivation is not common in Sindh,” he says. “But I am supplying papaya plants to farmers in district Mirpurkhas and Hyderabad, who are working with the new crop.”

Shah has planted 200,000 seeds in polythene bags that he buys for Rs1.50. He sells each seedling bag for Rs20. “If I sell 200,000 bags for 20 rupees each, I can earn four million rupees,” he says.

“This is a breakthrough in agro-economy.” said Nadeem Mirbahar, an environmental expert and ecologist. “Utilisation of agricultural waste is a great opportunity for the sector, as it has multiple benefits, including preparation of land for new crops, reducing pollution by reusing waste instead of incinerating it, and using organic compost to support the ecosystem.”

Roses are high in demand not only in domestic markets, but also internationally. There is no shortage of fresh water in Wanki Wasi and the intervention of concerned authorities and regulation of this potentially lucrative floricultural opportunity could augment the income of rose farmers and rose-pickers both. And Sakeena’s children too perhaps may see a better life.

The writer is a Sindhi fiction writer, blogger and journalist

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 29th, 2021