Powers that be in Punjab destroyed fertile belt of Multan, its productive mango farms for a flop DHA housing society and now want to build a canal in the hope of turning dry, dusty Cholistan Desert fertile.
Punjab, Sindh are together the Agri crop powerhouses in Pakistan.
Both should have formal land survey. Both have fertile belts that need serious green belt protection like Tando Allah Yar, Mirpurkhas in Sindh. To safeguard it from being sold off for some empty plot housing scheme like idiocy.
Other Agri land like the water starved, saline Shikarpur is much better suited for heat tolerant livestock like the Sahiwal Cows. Some foolish, selfish Feudals will cry about being deprived water for cultivation but their demands should be shot down, ignored by any semi-competant authority.
That is there needs to be a strong DEFRA in UK like Govt Department who does concrete, evolving research and has a Singapore, Dubai like iron fist to shape up how Agri land should be utilised.
India's Amul, a cooperative of 3.6 million dairy farmers should be Pakistan's inspiration. Agriculture should not feel like a zero sum game.
Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa, Balochistan's farmers should be joint partners in shared professional undertakings like cooperative crop insurance, cold storage, trading arm companies that export produce abroad.
Engro Friesland (a listed company), its 220 acres dairy farm in Sukkur should be the sort of joint projects we need more of.
Friesland is the largest Dutch socially good, cooperative, that makes tiny Netherlands the dairy export powerhouse in Europe (123.8 billion Euro worth of exports).
Informal Agriculture dominated by barbaric, violent land grabbing Feudals with a private militia of goons will wreck us all in the face of unpredictable climate change, its stressors.
Cooperation is key.
Even between a peach, persimmon, Tobacco, Walnut grower in Swat and a Mango, Sugar, Wheat, Banana Grower in Sindh.
The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) recently gave the green light to Punjab’s plans to build two new canals— the 176km-long Cholistan canal and the 120km-long Marot canal— in the Cholistan area. Sindh had already lodged a formal complaint against the project with the Council of Common Interests (CCI), but no decision has been reached yet.
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