Grow Vegetables For Health 
By Babar Tazeem Tahir

All the Green-Yellow-Orange vegetables are rich sources of calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, beta-carotene, vitamin B-complex, vitamin-C, vitamin A and vitamin K.

These help the body in mounting capacity to fight by boosting up the immune system against a number of diseases, especially the cancer.

More than 35 different kinds of vegetables are grown in diverse eco-systems of Pakistan, from dry zone to the wet zone, from sea shores in south to high mountains in north.

Low elevation to high altitude, rain fed to irrigated and low input to very high input systems, as plastic houses and glass houses.

In our country vegetables are cultivated on just 0.62 m hac, which is 3.1% of the total cropped area. This produce can be boosted up by using hybrid seeds of vegetable.

The hybrid seed used now a days, is mostly being imported from India, Thailand and Malaysia and vegetable growers are spending a huge amount of money on such imports.

Economic surveys shows that Pakistan imported 2,674 tons of vegetable seeds worth Rs. 763 million in 2009-10 and 3,553 tons worth Rs1085 million in 2011-12.

Farmers of Pakistan can recuperate lost productivity, estimated at 50% of total production, with the help of broad scale planting of hybrid seeds and modern farming practices.

By using traditional seed varieties other than hybrid seeds we can’t meet even the local requirements, what to talk of surplus for export.

Traditional methods of farming cannot change financial conditions of the depressed farmers. Only adoption of modern techniques can make farming a profitable business which could change living standard of the farmers.

The imported hybrid seed is so expensive that it is beyond the purchasing power of the small farmers.

The agriculture-extension workers are to pay attention to prepare the farmers to use hybrid seeds by which they can acquire double or more than double of their inputs.

Farmers argue that hybrid seeds and modern techniques are quite expensive that they cannot afford.

They believe that only government’s support can improve the situation and in the absence of state incentives and intervention, small farmers can’t improve the quality of their life.

If the government offers incentives like the way India, Malaysia etc, are giving to their farmers, the financial condition of growers in Pakistan could turn better.

The incentives given to Indian farmers include cheap and smooth supply of hybrid seeds of vegetable, electricity, pesticides and fertilizers at controlled prices.


March 2015
Source: Pakistan Observer