LAYYAH: The date palm orchard, a property of the district council, presents a picture of sheer negligence as the trees are falling regularly due to attack of Red Palm Weewil disease.

The 150-year-old orchard is known for sweetness, aroma and taste of date fruit.

The farm originally covered 72 kanal but it had now been reduced to 52 kanal land. Last year, the total count of date palms was 420 but a thunderstorm damaged 57 of them in July 2018, says Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, an official of the district council. Forty-seven trees fell due to weight of fruit which could weigh up to 480kg every year and the total count of felled trees during the last two years has reached about 144, which left the remaining standing trees count as 276, adds Mr Iqbal.

This year, old trees were attacked by the disease and the district council wrote written a letter number, dated 5-6-2019, to the deputy director agriculture to carry out a technical expert study to diagnose the disease. The agriculture department’s horticulture expert Muhammad Siddique visited the farm and prepared a report, saying the trees were more than one hundred years old and there was an attack of the Red Palm Weewil, which turned their stems hollow. According to the report, the trees stopped bending with age and fell due to weight of the fruit.

The district council auctions the farms to the contractors who pick the fruit. This year it auctioned the orchards for Rs500,000. The agriculture land of the orchards has also been leased out separately to another tenant who grows vegetables there. The district council did nothing to protect the trees of halawi breed of date palms in spite of getting heavy amount from the auction of the farms.

The farm was established by the Panwar family of the area which had donated the land to the British rulers whose graveyard was situated near the farm. Some remains of this Gora Graveyard can still be seen there.

The district council has not posted any gardeners for the farm as it has been auctioned and the land has been leased out, says Mr Iqbal. However, the responsibility of the taking care of the trees falls on the district council as the contractor gets the right to pick the fruit only during the harvesting season.

Muhammad Arif Warraich, the chief officer of the district council, says he has moved a summary to the administrator of the district council for reallocation of funds. The funds would be used for planting of date palm saplings to rehabilitate the farms.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2019