05 — Farming
How this ground earns
Wheat and fodder on the kaddhi, kinnow in the orchards of the tehsil, buffalo and goats in the yards, and remittances from the men who left. That is the household budget of a village on this bank.
Kinnow
Kot Momin, about forty kilometres from here, is best known across Pakistan for its kinnow — the mandarin hybrid that this part of Sargodha built its reputation on. The picking season runs through the winter and the fruit goes out from the tehsil to markets and to export.
Wheat
The staple of the rabi season and the crop the flag carries. Sown after the monsoon, cut in April, and still the thing that decides whether a year on the bank was a good one.
Water
The Chenab and the canal system it feeds. Under the 1960 treaty its water is Pakistan’s, and the canal colonies of this district were built on exactly that flow. Riverside land also takes the flood when the river rises.
Livestock
Buffalo for milk, a few cattle, goats. Fodder is grown for the animals as much as for sale, and the milk economy of the village is mostly informal and local.
The bridge question
The single most reported problem of this stretch is the absence of a bridge over the Chenab. Without it the villages of the bank are cut off from the towns on the other side, produce travels the long way round, and work has to be looked for elsewhere. National press coverage of Takht Hazara ties the loss of two thirds of its population in twenty years directly to the lack of employment and connection.
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