Field Cultivation and Cropping Techniques
Description
In the name of Allah, I am a 70-year-old woman from Ganish. I will tell you about things of the past that I understand. Let's first talk about agriculture herkiching.
We start farming when the winter season ends and the summer comes, we called this the samboula season. In mid-February most field preparation before sowing of [spring] wheat was done with the combination of the harish, harchum and navik [a wooden plough with an iron tip] whereby the initial field preparation with oxen (har-aograkas) has already occurred in October when bulls have returned from pasture. At that time the field was also levelled using a bunch of sea buckthorn branches tied up with a rope and some stone on it or with a heavy wooden beam behind the bull (planking), a process called phask in Burushki language. After sowing and watering, we started a festival called bofow, to celebrate sowing.
At the onset of spring, when flowering of the fruit trees started watering started following weekly changing schedules. At that time, there was no mineral fertilizers, such as urea, only animal manure and kitchen waste were used. At that time, there was no tradition of growing trees in the fields and there were no cherry or other fruit trees in the wheat fields that were also partly sown with buckwheat.
Most of the crops were threshed by animals [using a procedure] called darzz barass whereby the neighbours were called in for help and all worked together. Thereafter the grain was cleaned using a wooden instrument called harang. [The men] used to throw the husks of wheat up in air after selecting the wind direction such that the wheat grains dropped near the men and the husks dropped some distance away from the wheat grains. Thereafter, the wheat was graded and food and tea was arranged for the people who came to help. They used to collect the wheat in the name of Allah.
At that time there were no other big vessels to collect the wheat but animals' skin conserved from slaughtering used as bags. Those bags were used to carry the wheat grains home. People lived the whole year on wheat, buck-wheat, barley and apricots dried in the summer and [apricot] kernel oil plus meat from slaughtered animals in winters. Everybody was careful in the use of animal fat used in the meals because there was no concept of obtaining cooking oil from outside. Animal fat was put in a big vessel with added onions and other condiments to make a meal from it which tasted very nicely.
There was no concept of [formal] education in those days as most of the children used to graze animals. If they worked on daily wages, they earned one Rupee for an 8-hour working day. At the time of my marriage, men used to obtain a salary of three rupees. Now the world has become a better place and all roads are well made.
Now the agricultural system has changed and people left animal rearing and ploughing with bulls because there are tractors and machinery. And they have abandoned growing wheat, instead alfalfa and fruit trees have been planted in the fields. Now there are no more problems with food, and fruits and food items are sold in the market, whereby the [family] income has increased. In the old days, fruits were of good quality and very sweet, whereas now different diseases and other factors have made their quality to become very bad. This worries us. Also, small goats that could walk would be taken [during daytime] to areas without trees for grazing and brought back every day.
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