May 21: Thomson Reuters Foundation report by Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio states that Adil Khan’s hopes for a good harvest are fading again this year as he inspects his orchard of apricot and loquat trees in the mountains of Pakistan’s northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Usually, fruit in the five-acre family orchard is ready to pick only by the last week of May. But this year, and in other recent years since 2013, much of the harvest has ripened by mid-April – nearly a month ahead of schedule. With less time to grow, the fruit is half its normal size – and his income is shrinking too, the 34-year-old farmer told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
REUTERS: Shorter, hotter, earlier: Shrinking spring slashes Pakistani harvests
