Hemp grown in Pakistan

After posting the last post, an article on hemp for Pakistan by environmentalist Helga Ahmad, I googled up hemp/Pakistan and came across this interesting piece which claims there is hemp grown in Pakistan. From correspondences with many Pakistanis, I have heard that it it not grown, but that may not be entirely correct. It may be best to say it is but very sparsely. The following is from
Panacea Pakistan http://panacea-bocaf.org/panaceapakistan.htm :

Sustainable development is certianly only possible by using Panaea's sustainble development education on industrial Hemp. Industrial Hemp is grown in Pakistan. Oil and coal that used to produce commercial goods (plastics, man-made fibres, products, paints, chemicals, etc.) can't be produced any more renewably other than by using HEMP.

There is no such thing as a sustainable industry with out it. There is NO other process that can eradicate the chemicals out of our world at the source other than adopting the hemp industry.

Basic necessities of life like:

Food—seeds, oil, flour, medicine—salves, anti-nausea, toiletries—soap, shampoo, lotion,textiles—clothing, towels, bedding, canvas,household products—carpet, detergent, paint, toys,industrial products—paper, concrete, insulation, fuel, car parts. Cannot be produced with lesser of a carbon foot print or impact on earth. Yet there is no educational program other than Panacea intent on teaching this.

Cultivation of industrial hemp for fiber and for grain in france.

Panacea Pakistan has the potential to become an educational medium for the developing world wih sustainable development.

With endorsement they can begin separating the fiber from stalk, making paper, making stem to be mixed with lime for usage in building material or making hemp-crete or blocks to start of with. Objectives are to achieve these simple basic demonstrations to separate the fiber for making paper and stems for hempcrete.

The whole plant can be used in this process to get BioFuel like methanol, gas and fuel oil. With biomass pyrolysis they can also convert any organic material into fuel and/or gas. The goals are to show this educational model over there in order to help educate third world countries in sustainable development.

Article by Helga Ahmad in support of hemp for Pakistan

An article in yesterday's Express Tribune asks about hemp for Asia - where cotton farming is killing the population of farmers. There has been much hemp cultivated in India and China - China cultivates most of the hemp fibre today - and there is interest (see previous posts on this blog) about hemp for India but the government does not yet back it. Hopefully this piece will be read at all levels and hemp will be available to replace cotton, corn and tobacco. There may be nefarious groups that try to influence these governments to keep the people in poverty and dying from the pesticides that major companies sell for cotton, corn and tobacco farming - hemp is illegal to cultivate in the US - where there is an effort under way to make it legal again - www.minawear.com/about-us/ -

By Helga Ahmad

Published: January 23, 2013

The writer is an environmentalist and has worked for the ministry of environment for 15 years

Intermittently, the media exposes the public to the dangers of the looming food crisis we face. One is also made aware of the water crisis and its role in quickening the impending food shortage. What is never mentioned is that our soil is dying and its limited carrying capacity has resulted in massive additions of chemical fertilisers, which, without a balanced organic base in the soil, does not result in healthy growth of crops. The soil, therefore, needs to be protected through intensive spraying of pesticides.
More than a decade ago, a group of Dutch scientists, undertook a study in Sialkot, from where fresh vegetables are supplied to the vegetable markets of Lahore and Islamabad. A full growing cycle of the vegetables was observed, along with water sources, soil and periodic testing of the growing vegetables. The results of the tests confirmed that the vegetables were not meant for human consumption.
Around the same time, one came to know of young girls, not yet in their teens, who were being treated for cancer. These girls were from the tobacco-growing areas and their duty during the harvesting season was to string the leaves for the drying chambers. Today, tobacco requires up to 16 sprays. An effort to establish an extensive programme to raise natural predators for pests failed as the pesticide lobby was too strong. A similar scenario is prevailing in the cotton-growing belt with cotton-pickers exposed to the remnants of the extensive spraying on the crops.
Cotton requires a staggering 125 million kilogrammes of pesticides annually in the US alone. Pesticides are possibly the greatest toxic threat to our soil, air, water and natural communities because they often leave permanent after-effects and their toxicity increases as they are consumed up the food chain. Many pesticides are known carcinogens and can also cause immune-deficiency disorders.
Cottonseed cake, a major animal feed, is also a carrier of pesticides, besides freshly grown fodder. And so, starting from the tip of our mountain ranges, where cottonseed cake is feeding stall-fed animals, pesticides are seeping into our soil throughout the country. Perhaps, we need to look towards the West where efforts are underway to find alternative solutions to these hazards. The focus in the West and in China is on the benefits of cultivating hemp (cannabis sativa). The vast potential of this plant was acknowledged during the last decade after Beijing’s Hemp Research Centre was established. Advanced technologies in reducing the lignin content in hemp were developed, which turned it into an easily workable fibre for highly sophisticated textiles. Twenty-thousand hectares of hemp have already been planted in China with the added benefit providing income for millions of small-scale farmers as large areas of cotton-growing land is freed for food production, besides reducing the input of chemical fertilisers and pesticides on cotton crops.
The present shortage of wood fibre at the global level has also contributed considerably to ignite interest in hemp. Plant breeders have developed hemp varieties with increased fibre content. And so, the world is moving on, while it seems that we are meant to stagnate. Or, is there a spark igniting?