Designing a 1 Acre Permaculture Model Farm in Pakistan

Hey Permies!
I have almost an acre of land in Pakistan an hour's drive from the capital.
I plan to live there along with my family (me, my wife and 5 children! ) as well as make it a model permaculture farm, don't know if there already exists a full fledge farmstead designed from scratch upon permaculture principles.
I want to have permaculture workshops there and other life skill courses also!
I want to document it and also would love and definitely need the support and guidance from all permies!
Is this a good place to share the progress?
any other advice is welcome!
Regards,
Nosherwan

Welcome to Permies Nosherwan! This is the perfect place to post.

I’m excited to hear more about your permaculture farm as it evolves.

Hi Nosherwan. Great to hear of your plans. In permaculture nothing is standard, every situation is unique, but the fun thing is that you can tell us about what the problems are and then we'll help you along as best as we can. The people at Permies are a nice bunch.
If i think of Pakistan i think it's going to be dry, but i could totally be mistaken. That's why it starts a bit with you sending some pictures or describing your local situation and then we can together think of solutions that are more or less workable for you.

Hi, I spent over 30 years in India, in Ladakh which is a very different climate than yours. There are lots of people doing various forms of permaculture and natural building and living in India, many of them in your climate. Of course visiting each other is unlikely, but I hope you can connect with them online and get some ideas and tips. I'm sure there are many in Pakistan as well.

I look forward to seeing your posts about your project and progress.

thank you everyone for the encouragement!
I would definitely need everyones help!
sharing some initial info of my plot below!

Basic Info:
Location: Near Jatli, around 2 hour's drive from the Capital, Islamabad.
• •  Latitude: 33.16921451139188
• •  Longitude: 73.09190889244977
Köppen Climate Classification
• Primary classification: Cwa – Humid subtropical, dry winter, hot summer
o C: Temperate/mesothermal (coldest month 0–18 °C)
o w: Dry winter season
o a: Hot summer (warmest month > 22 °C)
Climatic Characteristics
• Temperature:
o Summer: 35–42 °C (day), 25–30 °C (night)
o Winter: 5–15 °C (day), 0–5 °C (night), occasional frost
• Rainfall:
o Annual: ~900–1,200 mm
o Seasonal: Mostly monsoon (July–September), small winter rains
• Humidity: Moderate in monsoon, low in winter and spring
• Wind:
o Hot, dry westerlies in May–June
o Monsoon winds from south/southeast July–September
o Occasional cold northerly winds in winter
o Summer monsoon: SE/S
Pre-monsoon hot winds: W/NW
Winter: N/NW cold winds

Plot Shape and Contour.
South West side is highest and north northeast is the lowest point.

Nosherwan Huma wrote:I want to document it and also would love and definitely need the support and guidance from all permies!
Is this a good place to share the progress?

Nosherwan

I would love to hear more about your progress so yes, this is the prefect place to share!

https://youtube.com/shorts/L9266SIjLBc

so this is a video of my plot, I start the video near the corner (where there is a green dot on the contour map) and walk along the eastern road towards the top right corner of the polot.

In this video I'm walking on the plot, to show the soil etc.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Qes9HNuPJrY

That's a nice piece of land. Looks very dry to me and the soil very sandy. Luckily there is a beginning of a cover crop in wild weeds shattered. Do you know them? Do you know which ones have nitrogen fixing nodules? Which ones have deep roots that can pull up water from the deep in summer? I think i'd start there. To get to know the local flora. Which shrubs do well, how can i propagate them. What can i import from nature reserves around that will help build up soils. Then while helping to install a soil building vegetation i'd look at what trees neighboring farmers grow and see if incorporatring some stronger varieties that don't need pesticides can be obtained. What crops do farmers grow? Grow a bit similar. Dip your toes into what works locally. Once you have some succes go experiment a bit.
All the while observing the land. I don't know if you're planning on building a house or a shed, but if you do you'll have some roof water you could collect. That will help your project greatly. Maybe there is a (temporary)source on the land. Maybe take a leaf out of greening the desert series of Geoff Lawton in Jordan. Use his techniques to collect water, keep it on the land, block wind. Maybe have chickens for food and compost. I don't know what future brings, maybe you do , maybe you don't but getting to know the flora and see what can be propagated is a good start.
Please keep us posted!

Nosherwan, is that pool/pond on your plot? Is it there year-round? Is there some way you can sculpt the land to ensure that the water doesn't find its way through that drainage culvert/tunnel under the road?

Based on the look of the land in that video, I also agree that the "greening the desert" material from Lawton will be useful for you. Finding ways to retain that water if at all possible, and then channeling it to where you want to grow food, will likely be key for your growing operations. To retain more water, you may want to add some texture to that slope that leads northeast so the soil has a chance to catch water before it runs off to your lower lands in the north northeast. Swales are common remedies and might be helpful for you.

Maybe right now you can start fortifying the soil by chopping-and-dropping plants that you don't eat into the areas where you intend to grow food.

Best of success to you...!

Have you had that soil tested or are you aware of its prior use?
It looks like old industrial land maybe an old tip site, I am worried about that.
Has the soil been completed turned over across the whole site?
I see the next door plot has a water pond, can you build one for yourself and not cause water problems with next door?
I have a few questions;
- Is there any farming in the area?
- is there any water flow to your land?
- Why is the road built up?
- Do you have access to that power on the poles?
- Is it windy there?

Hugo Morvan wrote:That's a nice piece of land. Looks very dry to me and the soil very sandy. Luckily there is a beginning of a cover crop in wild weeds shattered. Do you know them? Do you know which ones have nitrogen fixing nodules? Which ones have deep roots that can pull up water from the deep in summer? I think i'd start there. To get to know the local flora. Which shrubs do well, how can i propagate them. What can i import from nature reserves around that will help build up soils. Then while helping to install a soil building vegetation i'd look at what trees neighboring farmers grow and see if incorporatring some stronger varieties that don't need pesticides can be obtained. What crops do farmers grow? Grow a bit similar. Dip your toes into what works locally. Once you have some succes go experiment a bit.
All the while observing the land. I don't know if you're planning on building a house or a shed, but if you do you'll have some roof water you could collect. That will help your project greatly. Maybe there is a (temporary)source on the land. Maybe take a leaf out of greening the desert series of Geoff Lawton in Jordan. Use his techniques to collect water, keep it on the land, block wind. Maybe have chickens for food and compost. I don't know what future brings, maybe you do , maybe you don't but getting to know the flora and see what can be propagated is a good start.
Please keep us posted!

Thanks! At some places the soil is fine and along the center of the plot there is rocky material, its not a very hard rock but stil...
I'll make a list of the plants next time I go there.

So, the primary purpose of the site is residential, i.e. Me, my wife and my 5 children will be living there, God Willing. So mostly we would need just a kitchen garden and some fruit trees etc, some chicken. so we can use the different areas for appropriate purposes. will need suggestions for that as well. for crops I'll probably arrange some larger area in the surroundings.

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:Nosherwan, is that pool/pond on your plot? Is it there year-round? Is there some way you can sculpt the land to ensure that the water doesn't find its way through that drainage culvert/tunnel under the road?

Based on the look of the land in that video, I also agree that the "greening the desert" material from Lawton will be useful for you. Finding ways to retain that water if at all possible, and then channeling it to where you want to grow food, will likely be key for your growing operations. To retain more water, you may want to add some texture to that slope that leads northeast so the soil has a chance to catch water before it runs off to your lower lands in the north northeast. Swales are common remedies and might be helpful for you.

Maybe right now you can start fortifying the soil by chopping-and-dropping plants that you don't eat into the areas where you intend to grow food.

Best of success to you...!

The pond is in our neighbours plot but the pond will drain along the border between our plots so we will hopefully have access to the excess runoff water as well.

yes, will have to add some texture. the lowest boundary of my plot is a rocky material dumped along when landscaping. how should I stablize that slope?

John C Daley wrote:Have you had that soil tested or are you aware of its prior use?
It looks like old industrial land maybe an old tip site, I am worried about that.
Has the soil been completed turned over across the whole site?
I see the next door plot has a water pond, can you build one for yourself and not cause water problems with next door?
I have a few questions;
- Is there any farming in the area?
- is there any water flow to your land?
- Why is the road built up?
- Do you have access to that power on the poles?
- Is it windy there?

I'll do the jar test next time I go there from a few different spots.
but it was a raw unused piece of land.

- Is there any farming in the area?
there is in the surrounding areas, not right next to the plots. I'll share an areal shot of the land before we made the terraces for our plots.
- is there any water flow to your land?
see my previous posts
- Why is the road built up?
what do you mean?
- Do you have access to that power on the poles?
yes.
- Is it windy there?
yes, it is windy but the wind is not very strong.

above are the historical images of the site from the overall area and up close of my plot for the years:
2002, 2013, 2018 and 2023 respectively.

we (10 families together) bought the land in 2022 ( with each having their own plot) and started the earthworks in 2023

so from the 2002 image, it can be seen that rocky bit goes right down the center of the plot. circled in yellow. where there is nothing growing even then.

Nosherwan Huma wrote:Hey Permies!
I have almost an acre of land in Pakistan an hour's drive from the capital.
I plan to live there along with my family (me, my wife and 5 children! ) as well as make it a model permaculture farm, don't know if there already exists a full fledge farmstead designed from scratch upon permaculture principles.
I want to have permaculture workshops there and other life skill courses also!
I want to document it and also would love and definitely need the support and guidance from all permies!
Is this a good place to share the progress?
any other advice is welcome!
Regards,
Nosherwan

Hi Nosherwan sb,
We are developing a similar permaculture farm on around 3 acre land near Lahore. Would love to connect and exchange ideas.
Irfan