Growing cold, which city's peanuts are more popular?
Demand for dry fruits increases in winter, groundnut is a dry fruit that is available to the general public. Groundnuts are produced from Faisalabad and sent across the country.
Faisalabad's Jhang Bazar is the country's largest groundnut market. Tons of groundnuts are brought in this market from groundnut growing areas including Sargodha, Chakwal, Gujjar Khan, Para Chinar. In this market groundnuts are cooked and colored and women clean the groundnuts in a traditional way.
Let us mention here that the process of cooking groundnuts is now done in a modern plant while a new method has been introduced for cleaning groundnuts. In this regard, the vendors say that peanuts are prepared quickly with the help of the plant, but there is a difference in the color and taste of the peanuts prepared with the help of the plant and the traditional method.
Peanuts, big or small, are loved by everyone. Its diners say that the taste of Chakwal and Gujjar Khan peanuts, whether prepared at the groundnut plant or on traditional bhattis, cannot be matched by any other region.
According to the data of the Ministry of Food Security, during 2020 and 2021, peanuts were cultivated on an area of 126 thousand acres in Pakistan and more than 121 thousand tons were produced. The highest production was 80 thousand tons in Punjab, 700 tons in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 100 tons in Sindh.
Attock, Chakwal, Khushab, Mianwali, Bhakkar and Bahawalnagar districts of Punjab are suitable for groundnut cultivation while Kohat and Karam of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Khairpur, Ghotki, Sukkur and Sanghar of Sindh.
If we talk about other countries, China and India are among the major peanut producing countries. Where 50% of the world production is cultivated. The yield of groundnut can be 40 maunds per acre but in Pakistan an average yield is 6 to 10 maunds per acre.
If modern farming practices are followed along with government patronage, the production of groundnut per acre can be increased and a lot of foreign exchange can be earned from its export.
