Saving the Dates by Jamil Akhtar

Pakistan is one of the largest producers and exporters of dates in the world. Date palms are grown in all four provinces on an area of about 90,000 hectares that yield more than 500,000 metric tons of fruit every year. The fruit is exported both fresh and dried.

 

Every year, the fruit is harvested between July and September. District Khairpur in Sindh province, the date capital of the country, starts buzzing with activity. Labor for fruit picking, processing, packing and transporting starts arriving from all over Sindh and even Balochistan and Punjab provinces. Work starts early in the morning and goes on till sunset.

 

Iqrar Ali Jatoi belongs to a family of date farmers who have been in this business for several generations.

Iqrar Ali Jatoi is a date farmer. He owns 1,500 date palms spread over an area of 40 acres in Therri, District Khairpur. He received most of these trees as his father’s legacy. Date farming is his primary source of income. The little time he has left from managing his farm is spent in growing some wheat for his family’s consumption and green fodder for his cattle.

 

Jatoi says that one tree can yield 40 to 100 kilograms of fruit in one year. Although dozens of different date cultivars are grown in Pakistan, Khairpur is known for the Aseel variety. The process starts with the planting of a sapling. A date palm starts bearing fruit after eight years of age and requires constant care in the early years. Some of his trees are older than fifty years. The older, taller trees bear more fruit than younger ones.

 

The fruit is collected unripe and then goes through a ripening process. First of all, individual pieces are separated. One group is chosen to be ripened and the other group is for drying. Then the fruit is washed, boiled and spread out in the sun. The length of time it spends in the sun depends whether it is meant for ripening or drying.

A climber getting ready to climb. He earns a little more than the other laborers but has zero insurance. Accidents while climbing are infrequent but not unheard of. Most falls result in death.

A climber chopping bunches and sending them down. The bunch is transferred to the ground on a kind of a zip line to minimise damage to the fruit.

The fruit is taken off the branches with the help of a comb-like instrument.

A couple working together, sorting fruit.

Fruit being washed before it is boiled.

Fruit being boiled.

Boiled fruit is transferred to baskets before it can be spread in the sun.

A laborer spreading boiled fruit in the sun.

The fruit that has been processed is being carried back to be packed.

Fruit being loaded onto a trolley, to be taken for processing. Date harvest season is a busy time for trolley drivers too.

Basket weavers come from far away during the date harvest season and bring their whole families along. They come from very under-developed areas and this is the only time of the year when they can make a reasonable amount of money.

At the end of the ripening and drying process, the fruit is taken to the market where it is auctioned. The buyers offer a different price every day, based on the market conditions. The buyers then sell some of the fruit in the local market while the better part of it is exported.

 

A few weeks after harvesting, the trees need to be pruned and the dead leaves need to be removed. The trees are inspected for any sign of disease. Then they have to be pollinated manually so that they can bear fruit the next year. Each plant has to be inspected every few weeks to ensure that it is healthy.

 

Iqrar reports that climate change is having a greatly adverse effect on date production. Quoting the example of 2023, he mentioned that the monsoons started much earlier than usual, and about half the fruit got wasted.

 

Other than climate change, the date palm also suffers from occasional infections. This year, a never seen before infection has invaded the trees that kills them within a matter of days. According to Jatoi, at least twenty thousand trees have died within the Therri area.

 

Diseased trees have to be chopped before they can infect other trees. An unknown disease has caused a loss of nearly 20,000 trees in Kheri area of district Khairpur.

Jatoi does not seem too hopeful for the future of this business. He says that government shows zero interest in supporting and regulating this business, thus ignoring the potential tax revenue that can be gathered from both growers and buyers. The bigger part of the fruit is dried and India is the biggest buyer for it. Since India and Pakistan have no trade relations, most of it is sent via Dubai and the money comes through Hundi and Hawala. Again, this costs a lot to the national exchequer in terms of taxes. Moreover, India has started developing their own date farming and has planted date palms over an area of 70,000 acres as a pilot project, reportedly. Once these trees start producing fruit, they will have no need to import from Pakistan.

A group of labourers enjoying a hard-earned rest.