Peasants were entering fields, some harvesting sugarcane while others managed bright oranges. Travelling on a foggy January morning in upper Sindh with the sun trying to make its presence felt from behind clouds while the mustard crop was in full bloom on both sides of the highway made the trip a pleasure. However, a considerable stretch of the National Highway remains disturbing with broken patches beyond Hyderabad.

Citrus, guava, mango and palm date orchards besides the cultivation of cash crops in any district make it a rich agriculture zone. Given their potential and diversity, farmlands on the left bank of the Indus are described as the breadbasket of Sindh, from Ghotki to Thatta. Districts located in this zone are rich in productivity and diversity.

And Naushahro Feroz is one of them.

Eminent education expert, Inam Sheikh, describes Naushahro Feroz as a hub of the standard dialect of the Sindhi language. “The city used to be known as Sahitia Pargana [province] in the past. The dialect of Sindhi language of people in this area is selected for textbooks,” he says while observing the city has many authors, poets and educational administrators of note to its credit.

Almanis, Syeds, Jatois, Bhurt, Behans, Rajpars, Khushiks, Jamalis are families that matter in Naushahro Feroz politically. Most of the agricultural land owned by them is in this part of Sindh.

The combination of the production of major crops, along with farming of dates, mangoes, guavas, bananas, lemons and citrus varieties including grapefruits and orange orchards is a peculiarity of Naushahro Feroz

The combination of the production of major crops, with the farming of dates, mangoes, guavas, bananas, lemons, and citrus varieties including grapefruit and orange orchards is a peculiarity of Naushahro Feroz. No other city shares this characteristic. It has now also become a hub of citrus cultivation of Sindh and is gradually showing potential for date palm production after neighbouring Khairpur district which was already home to dates production.

Moroccan and Arab origin’s ajwa, amber and medjool varieties are making inroads in Naushahro Feroz. Progressive grower Ghulam Rasool Shah Jatoi, a member of Sindh’s baronial landowning family, Jatois, has taken a keen interest in dates’ cultivation besides citrus. The much talked about Keti Jatoi that stretches over thousands of acres of farmlands inside the riverine area between two dykes of Indus is associated with the Jatoi family of this district.

Mr Jatoi has a panache for modern agriculture practices and is always poised to give new techniques a chance ranging from production to processing of agro commodities. In the last six to seven years he has grown the above-mentioned dates’ varieties after procuring them from Dubai. Now, he plans to multiply plants this year in the June-July period. His guests find it an exciting experiment to have ajwa in an area other than Saudi Arabia considering the religious-cum-emotional attachment with this variety of fruit.

“We have not yet marketed ajwa for retail customers but after the multiplication of plants into thousands we will be reaching out to retail customers soon,” said Mr Jatoi. He started growing ajwa around five to six years back and has around 200 plants in all but is worried about the red palm weevil pest that threatens date palms globally. He is working with a UAE-based company to control the pest. “We will increase the date plantation threefold this year as multiplication of plants of date palm will lead to 1,000 more plants. The soil in our district seems to be suit these varieties, as evident from the size of the dates,” he remarks.

Among major crops, sugarcane has a small acreage and its producers supply their crop to mills in Khairpur and Benazirabad. While Naushahro Feroz has several cotton ginning factories, no sugar mills exist. The district is connected with the irrigation system of Rohri canal, one of Sukkur barrage’s seven main canals. Perennial Rohri canal was the sole source of irrigation water supply both in summer and winter season for the district, catering to Kharif needs of 4,000 cusecs approximately and 3,600 cusecs during Rabi season. Rohri’s total designed discharge was 13,000 cusecs.

Lemon cultivation, along with grapefruit, has made great strides here with contractors from different parts of the country taking interest in contractual agreements with orchard landowners. While lemon is grown across the district, it is Kandiaro taluka that is famous for its cultivation. Mango, guava and banana orchards share overall orchard acreage.

Farooq Lodhi, a grower, believes that date palm cultivation has a four to five per cent share in the overall agriculture sector of the district. “Bhiria city is producing quality guava,” he said. He was of the view that citrus farming has over the years become quite popular in the district to make Naushahro Feroz the empire of citrus production.

The Sindh agriculture department figures showed that of orchard farming in Naushahro Feroz, mango has an acreage of 7,825.6 acres; guava 2,829.2 acres; lemon 4,662.7 acres; malta 401 acres; orange 190 acres and banana 19,199.6 acres. But the department hasn’t, however, assessed the acreage whatsoever under date palms. After sugarcane, wheat and cotton are maintaining their acreages, too. Cotton acreage, agriculture department figures show, has recorded some decline. But now it is gaining lost ground. Wheat and sugarcane acreages remain, by and large, unchanged in the last decade and at times crosses the sowing targets.

Though banned, influential families cultivate rice. They engage in it in areas such as the other left bank parts of Sindh where this water-guzzling crop’s cultivation is banned, mainly in Sukkur and Guddu barrages’ command. A former parliamentarian and neurosurgeon-cum-grower Dr Ahmad Ali Shah believes that salinity and water-logging also hit parts of Naushahro Feroz. Rice cultivation is affecting soil quality and fertility in areas. He himself is pursuing citrus cultivation since he believes fruit is giving better returns.

Considering the city’s strategic location and growth potential, the federal government has launched a project of an industrial park called National Industrial Park (NIP) Naushahro Feroz through the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) on an 80 acres plot off National Highway near Moro. Around 50 acres are planned for industrial activity and the rest for amenities.

A PIDC officer said NIP was launched when Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi was the federal industries minister to utilise the city’s growth potential. The industrial activity would benefit the district in terms of employment opportunities for skilled labour. About 52pc of physical work has been completed and by the year’s end, its infrastructure would be laid as well.

Khairpur Special Economic Zone (KSZE) is already underway in the adjoining district. KSZE and NIP would boost industrial and economic activities in both districts especially in date palm and citrus sectors.

“Dates are table fruit and we have immense potential in the date sector of Sindh. Pakistan imports dates worth Rs2 billion. But we lack experts for tissue culture and the required technology for it,” said Qasim Jaskani, a progress date grower. He said that imported second-rated quality of ajwa is sold for Rs2,220 per kg and likewise quality no 2 amber was sold for Rs2,600 to Rs2,700 per kg in Sindh. “However, we can produce much better quality locally and save foreign exchange,” he remarked.

Naushahro Feroz is among those few districts that have over 5pc share in buffalo and cattle population ie 5.61pc as far as the livestock sector is concerned. It has a 3.86pc share in sheep and goats out of Sindh’s total livestock population as per the 2018 projected figures of the livestock department.

A famous and big gur market enables small sugarcane growers to trade their commodity as they avoid supplying their crop to sugar factories for delayed payments. Sugar mills owners deny them timely payment and resort to deductions. And small and medium-size growers are always in need of cash payments to keep their business and economic cycle going.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, January 31st, 2022