There are two cropping seasons in khanozai valley: Kharif and Rabi. Kharif crops are sown in summer and harvested in late summer or early winter, while Rabi crops are sown in winter, or during early summer and harvested in summer. Important Rabi crops are wheat, barley, cumin, vegetables and fodder. Crops grown during Kharif are fruits, melons, vegetables, tobacco, potato, fodder, onion etc. It is interesting to note that almost all the crops grown during Kharif season are cash crops. This indicates that the farmers of Pishin are commercial minded. It is worth mentioning that fodder and melons are the only crops which are sown both on irrigated and unirrigated plots. The farmers use scarce water resources in an efficient and effective manner.
Most economical fruit of khanozai is Apple. At the time of sowing and reaping, the demand for seasonal labour increases and male labour is employed on daily wages for this purpose. It is worth mentioning that rural male labourers from Pishin have migrated to khanozai areas in search of better wages and that they have been replaced by skilled Afghan refugees, who are hard working and submissive.
During the Rabi season wheat occupies the major share of the irrigated area, followed by barley, cumin, vegetables and fodder. In the Kharif season, the major share is taken by different kinds of fruits especially by Apple, followed by vegetables and tobacco. Potatoes and onions are also important Kharif crops. The farmers of Pishin mostly produce market crops. This shows that the farmers are highly commercialised. They have diversified their cropping pattern over the years from subsistence to high valued cash crops
Land ownership and Tenure system
As far as land ownership in district Pishin is concerned, the cultivated area is under personal ownership, while pasture land and those lands which have not been brought under administrative record belong to the tribe residing in the area. Cultivation is normally done by owners with the help of labourers or by means of share cropping, with the labourers on cash tenancy for an agricultural year.
Due to favorable soil and climatic conditions, zarakat khanozai produces a wide range of fruits and vegetables of good quality, and in quite sizable volumes. From horticultural point of view Balochistan can legitimately be called as the “Fruit Basket of Pakistan”. Balochistan is the major producer of apple in Pakistan, it produced 480 thousand tones of apple from an area of 35 thousand hectares apple which constitutes about 70% of the deciduous fruits in Balochistan, (GOP, 1997).District Pishin espically in khanozai adjecnt area is the major producer of apple in Balochistan. It produces 1, 16, 120 tones apple from an area of 7600 hectares in 1996-97,which contributes about 24% of the total production of the province(GOB, 1997). There are a number of popular commercial apple varieties grown in khanozai town. Which are, Kaja which is a newly introduced variety is grown on 8 % area while Tor Kulu (Red Deliscious), Shin Kulu (Golden Delicious), Amri, Mashadi and Kashimiri are grown on 75% area (FAO, 1990).
Farmers of the area are confronting various apple marketing problems.Poor and inadequate roads, lack of credit facilities, poor grading and cold storage facilities for perishable products and shortage of warehouses are the common marketing problems eroding the farmers incomes and leading to big marketing margins. They further argued that in the marketing process various marketing intermediaries are involve who receive the major share in the farmer’s income from apple sold in the market, they are organized, whealthy and informed about market conditions, marketing system and price behavior while the farmers on
the other hand are generally disorganized, financially weak and ignorant about market conditions. These conditions cause wide marketing margins which results in the exploitation of farmers. reported that the presence of pre-harvest contractoris a distinctive character of marketing in Pakistan. Many studies have been undertaken in the past to find out the marketing margins of different fruits and vegetables ranged from 10 to 70 % of the consumer price and showing big marketing margins exist for various agricultural commodities and hence indicating that farmers are exploited by the various marketing middlemen.
This study is important to sort out the producer’s share in consumer’s rupee and also to know the shares of different intermediaries involved in the marketing process and the returns made by them. This study will also help to find out the costs incurred at various stages of marketing process.
Results and Discussion
Marketing Channels: The marketing channels common in Khanozai are;
1. Producer- Pre-harvest contractor- Commission agent-Wholesaler -Retailer-Consumer. About 80 % of apple producers market their produce through pre-harvest contractors.
2. Producer-Commission agent-Wholesaler-Retailer-Consumer. 20% farmers undertake self marketing and get 12 % higher net margin than those marketing through pre-harvest contractor. Henceforth, the first marketing channel will be called as channel-1 and second marketing channel called as channel-2. Marketing channel for tor kulu apple in karazat khanozai. Marketing Margins: Marketing margin is the difference between the price received by the producer and the price paid by the consumer of produce.It is also computed as the percentage share of final price received.
Materials and Methods
This study was conducted in Pishin especially Karazat Khanozai of Balochistan in 1998. Awell structured questionnaire was used to collect data from producers, pre-harvest contractors, commission agents, wholesalers, retailers and consumers. A list of major apple producing villages in sub division Pishin were obtained from the Extra Assistant Director of Agriculture Pishin. Five villages were selected through random technique out of entire population. These villages were, Manzaki, Huramzai Samzai, Kakazai and Alizsai. Stratified random sampling technique was used for the selection of apple producers. The 45 apple producers were selected, 30 preharvest contractors, 10 commission agents, 10 wholesalers and 30 retailers were selected randomly from Quetta market where the apple growers of Pishin supply their produce. Weighted averages were used for analysis and interpretation of the data.