Agricultural status in Gilgit Baltistan

Agriculture is the biggest enterprise in the world. It is the science, art and business of rearing crops and animals to provide wool, food and other products. When it comes to agriculture in Pakistan, its natural resources are arable land and water. Agriculture in Pakistan contributes 24% GDP and absorbs 43% of the labour force. Gilgit Baltistan is the northernmost autonomous territory of Pakistan.

 The climate of Gilgit Baltistan is mot constant, varies from place to place. Surrounding mountain ranges creates sharp variation in weather patterns. Some of the regions over here are extremely hot in summer and cold in winter. The climate of Gilgit Baltistan best suits to horticultural crops and potato is grown abundantly everywhere. Most commonly agronomic crops are wheat and maize. The mountain farming is very common in entire Gilgit Baltistan and no doubt mountain farming over here is quite prolific than other hilly areas of Pakistan. It is a fact that is no attack of catastrophic pests like aphids. Hence we can say that there is no prevalence of potato leafroll viruses, which decrease the yield of potato crop up to 90% within a short interval of time. Most interestingly Gilgit Baltistan is out of monsoon zone and it is fruitful in a sense that the potato crop is not vulnerable to late blight of potato disease. There is no concept of forcing in Gilgit Baltistan and all crops are grown summer. It has a beneficial aspect that long sunny and cool nights are responsible for the high yield of crops. Gilgit Baltistan is blessed with high mountains like K-2, Broad Peak and Nanga Parbat and many villages are isolated by the Rocky Mountains, Deserts. So there are minimal chances of an epidemic. On the other hand, there are some constraints in the Agriculture of Gilgit Baltistan.

 Promotion of Agriculture in Gilgit Baltistan

Supporting Gilgit Baltistan Agriculture Sector 

Pakistan Agriculture Research Council

The main burning issue which we are facing is the erosion of genetic material. It is a bitter truth that farmers over here prefer improved cultivars or exotic varieties which leads to erosion of genetic material. So there should be a mechanism to preserve the primitive cultivars because they are indigenous to that place and perform well there and they have the potential to cope with environmental stresses like drought, coolness, salinity. Climate change has also a profound influence on Gilgit Baltistan Agriculture system. As it is fact that the germination period of the crop is becoming short which results in early maturing and low yield of a crop. Secondly, land degradation is more prone to climate change and ultimately many problems arise like waterlogging, soil erosion and leaching of nutrients from the soil surface. There is a rapid melting of glaciers due to climate change and it results in a change in water and precipitation.