Seegram consists of villages on the mountains near Saidu Sharif. Its an hour long drive from Mingora across River Swat. The villagers travel to the cities down the hills to buy meat and other necessities of life. Some farmers are rich as they own large farming lands and can afford tubewells/handpumps for irrigation. They have cars or motorcycles to travel around. Those who cannot afford any vehicles travel on horses or donkeys.
Sultan owns a small farming land in Seegram,
which he thinks is sufficient to provide food to his family of 8 members.
He grows corn, wheat, jawar and olive in his farm and loki, tomatoes, peppers and okra in the back of his house. For water supply, he has to depend on rain. The stream running under his house is good enough to provide them with water for drinking and other household use.
He has a started working as a contractor so he can save some money to make his house more comfortable and dig a well to get water for farming.
At lunch, we were served with two giant parathas (three times the regular size), loki, meat curry and fried eggs. This exclusive food was tasty.
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| exclusive lunch, Seegram, Swat Valley, Pakistan |
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| Sultan, the head of the family in his farm, Seegram |
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| baby olives in Seegram, Swat Valley, Pakistan |
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| tomatoes in the backyard of a house, Seegram, Swat Valley, Pakistan |
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| green pepper planted in a house in Seegram, Swat Valley |
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| green pepper plant, Swat Valley, Pakistan |
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| Loki (squash) plant in a house in Seegram, Swat Valley, Pakistan |
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| Malta in a house in Seegram, Swat Valley, Pakistan |
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| a stream running under a house supplies drinking water to the family in Seegram, Swat Valley, Pakistan |
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| a small-scale personal farm in Seegram, Swat Valley, Pakistan |
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| rocky path to the farm, Seegram, Swat Valley, Pakistan |
