Our crops spoil due to lack of storages: Panjshiris

PARAKH (Pajhwok): Farmers in northeastern Panjshir province say their agricultural products are either decayed or sold at lower rate due to the lack of adequate cold storage facilities in the province.

Wheat, maize, beans and others are major agricultural products of Panjshir province, but mostly potatoes are grown in the province.

Potato is key crop in Dara and Abshar districts and officials say hundreds of acres of land is planted with potatoes in these districts every year, helping people to make ends meet.

Amiruddin, 50, a farmer, said he stored all his potato harvest weighing thousands of kilograms in two storage facilities due their low rate.

He said he stored the potato because their rate goes up in spring.

Farmers use local storage facilities for burring the potato until its rate goes up.

But he said potato in the local storage facilities get spoiled as his 80 percent potato harvest decayed in the storage facility.

He believed such problems of farmers could be solved only when there was peace in the country and the government could build cold storages for agricultural products and find market them.

Another grower, Ghulam Farooq, from Karaman village in Dara district, said his potato crop deteriorated because there were no adequate storage facilities.

He said farmers had no option but to sell their produce at lower prices for fear of spoilage, which was a blow to their economy and discourage them from farming.

Ghulam Hazrat, who owns an apple orchard, said that apples were sold at a very low price in the fall, which does not even cover the expenses.

He said his 70 percent of apple harvest spoiled due to lack of gold storages in the province.

Besides apple orchards in the province, berries are another major fruit.

Farmers and gardeners in Panjshir call on the government to set up standard cold storage facilities for agricultural products and accuse the province’s agriculture department of negligence in resolving their problems.

Milad Siddiqui, an economist in Panjshir, said the province’s environment suited agriculture and asked the government to distribute pesticides to protect agricultural products.

Mohammad Rauf Yaqubi, provincial director of agriculture, said work was underway to build six cold rooms in Panjshir.

According to him, the projects include cold storages for potatoes, for onions and fruits being constructed in different parts of the province at a cost of 53 million afghanis.

ma

Views: 73