Pine nut harvest drastically down in Nangarhar this year

JALALABAD (Pajhwok): Agriculture officials and traders say pine nut harvest has drastically decreased in eastern Nangarhar province this year.

Nangarhar Agriculture and Livestock Department’s natural resources head Qari Said Agha Tanha told Pajhwok the yield of pine nuts decreased significantly compared to last year’s harvest.

He said pine nut forests were spread over thousands of acres of land in mountainous parts of Hesarak, Sherzad, Khogyani, Pachiragam, Haska Mina, Kot, Achin and Spin Gar districts and the dried fruit was currently being harvested.

He said last year 1155 tons of pine cones produced at least 115 tons of pure pine nuts, but this year’s harvest was estimated to be less than 10 tons.

He added: “Several factors are behind the decreased yield. One reason is that the pine nut trees give much yield one year and less next year. Second reason is rains lashed the blossoms, reducing the number of buds. Third reason is people lack awareness and technical tools”.

Traders also said the reduced harvest of pine nuts this year had worried them.

Imran, a trader of pine nuts, said the harvest of pine nuts had dramatically decreased this year.

He said he used to buy pine nut cones in Sherzado district and hire workers to retrieve the nuts for sale in Jalalabad, providing temporary work to some people.

He asked the government to find a foreign market for Nangarhar’s pine nuts products. He said they had been unable to export pine nuts to foreign countries during the past two years and sold their product in domestic market, which did not meet their expenses easily.

Workers who retrieve pine nuts from the cones say they h work for a short time amid unemployment.

Wali Gul, a resident of Farm Hada area in Jalalabad city, was busy retrieving nuts from cones, says only cones are given to them in exchange for work.

“The work is for a short period of time, but still we are thankful. We sell pine nuts to buy food and other necessary things for ourselves. We Afghans are capable of doing anything if the government provides us jobs.”

Pine nuts are collected and processed in Nangarhar in a non-technical and unprofessional manner  by employing basic tools and this damages the crop.

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