Earthquake hits apple orchards, livelihoods
The sweeping valley of Ziarat district in southwest Pakistan, hit this week by a powerful earthquake, is famous for its ancient juniper forests and orchards filled with golden and green apples.
But the 6.4-magnitude tremor that destroyed homes and killed up to 300 people also felled many trees, robbing local apple industry workers of their livelihoods at a time when the sought-after crop was nearly ripe for harvest.
“Our region is the largest apple producer in the country,” said Dilawal Kakar, the mayor of Ziarat town, where Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had a retreat and which remains a haven for summer tourists and pilgrims.
“The earthquake has destroyed many orchards in the affected region and rendered many people jobless and deprived their owners of their earnings.”
Most of the 100,000-strong population in this picturesque corner of mountainous Baluchistan province are involved in apple farming in some way, either as orchard owners or labourers. Honey farming is also a major source of jobs.
Pakistan produced an estimated 350,000 tonnes of apples in 2007, more than Canada, Britain or Israel, according to the latest available UN Food and Agriculture Organisation statistics.
Most were grown in Baluchistan while many of the remainder come from the violence-ridden district of Swat in North West Frontier Province and the troubled tribal areas of South and North Waziristan.
Like many here, orchard owner Mohammad Shah lost close family members when the quake struck before dawn on Wednesday, killing the sleeping inhabitants of the flimsy mud-brick, straw-roofed houses that dot the rugged landscape.
“I also had a one-acre farm in Wam village, which was destroyed by the earthquake,” he explained. “With this destruction, I have no means of earning now and so was the case with my workers.”
Yet even survivors whose farms were spared the worst of the tremors and the hundreds of strong aftershocks now face a choice between keeping their families warm and with food in sub-zero night time temperatures or picking their crop.
“How can we look after our orchards and market fruits as we would do in the past when we are faced with the very question of survival?” said one man, Allauddin, from the neighbouring village of Kan Bangla.
“Most farmers and workers have lost their family members and houses and their immediate concern is to provide proper shelter to their families.”
Aid agencies have warned that they face a race against time to provide shelter for more than 70,000 people made homeless by the quake as the harsh winter sets in.
But many locals have complained that help was slow in coming, particularly to more remote areas, while health officials said potentially deadly diseases like pneumonia and dysentery were already affecting children.
Allauddin said the priority for him was not to tend his crop but to rebuild his home — which could take several months.
Meanwhile, traders in the provincial capital of Quetta, some 130 kilometres (80 miles) to the south, voiced fears that the earthquake could hit apple supplies in Pakistan and abroad.
“Baluchistan province’s Qilla Abdullah and Ziarat (districts) mainly supply the rest of Pakistan and export apple varieties to many countries,” said businessman Ameer Ali.
The apple-loving larger provinces like Punjab and Sindh had already seen shorter supplies and the quake would only make the situation worse, he added.
Another earthquake survivor, Shahid Khan, said the situation could last well into 2009.
“We’ll have no money to support our children for the year to come. We’ll need some job and support to restore our orchards for the next year,” he added.
Source: Khaleej Times
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