Tirah
More actions
| Tirah | |
|---|---|
| Tirah Valley, Afridi Tirah | |
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Geography | |
| Country | Pakistan |
| Province/State | Khyber Pakhtunkhwa |
| Districts | Khyber District, Orakzai District |
| Coordinates | 33.72, 70.95 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 1,700 km² |
| Terrain | Mountain valleys round the head of the Bara River, with terraced fields on Tirah Maidan; rocky, rain-fed uplands in Orakzai; approximately Tirah Tehsil (Khyber District) and Orakzai District |
| Climate | |
| Climate Type | Moderate on Tirah Maidan; semi-arid in Orakzai |
| Growing history | |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 1 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Tirah is a landrace cannabis growing area in the mountains of Khyber District and Orakzai District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, on the border with Afghanistan. Muhammad Hamayun and Zabta Khan Shinwari wrote in 2004 that cannabis had been cultivated in Afridi Tirah for hundreds of years, and that charas was made there from it in large quantities by folk methods.[1] Shahid Sharif and Farhat Ullah, who interviewed growers in the Orakzai uplands to the south, called its cultivation there the backbone of the rural economy for decades.[2] In May 2026 elders from the Tirah Valley met Pakistan's cannabis regulator to discuss bringing their crop under licence.[3]
Geography
In the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Tirah is the mountainous tract between the Khyber Pass and the Khanki valley that takes in all the valleys round the source of the Bara River, some 600 to 700 square miles (about 1,550 to 1,800 km²). Its people were the Afridi and Orakzai tribes.[4]
Tirah Maidan, the summer home of the Afridis, is an oval plain seven to eight miles (11 to 13 km) long under the snow ridges of the Safed Koh, at about 6,400 ft (1,950 m). The same article called it one of the most fertile valleys on the frontier, with all its alluvial slopes "terraced and revetted and irrigated", and walnut and mulberry trees round its houses.[4] Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported in 2012 that a moderate climate, red soil and growers skilled with the crop gave Tirah Maidan what was renowned as the region's best hashish.[5]
The Mastura valley, the Orakzai country in the southern half of Tirah, lies at about 6,000 ft (1,830 m). In the 1911 account the Orakzais wintered in the Miranzai valley and moved up to Mastura for the summer, as the Afridis moved up to Maidan.[4] Orakzai District, the former Orakzai agency, covers 1,538 km² of mountainous, semi-arid country and was merged into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018.[2]: 134
Traditional cultivation
Hamayun and Shinwari, who studied charas production and its marketing in Afridi Tirah, found that the resinous bracts round the seed gave the strongest and best charas, and that its quality fell as leaves, twigs and other matter were mixed in. The charas made there was used locally and smuggled to other parts of Pakistan and abroad.[1]
In 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty followed Noor Muhammad Afridi, a hashish seller with a shop at Jamrud, at the foot of the Khyber Pass, on his journey to his clan's land on Tirah Maidan. It described farmers such as Shah Mahmud, aged 55, tending cannabis on the small terraced fields of the plain. The cut plants were hung upside down to dry, then threshed through a thin cloth to gather the resin glands, which were crushed into a fine powder. The powder was stitched into the skins of goats and sheep slaughtered to mark a good harvest, six to 10 kilograms to a skin, and left in them for at least three months. The top grade is called Awal Namber Garda, Pashto for "top-grade dust".[5]
Shahid Sharif and Farhat Ullah interviewed 16 people in Orakzai District for a study published in 2026, among them six landowning farmers and one tenant who had grown cannabis for eight to 22 years.[2]: 138 A farmer in Upper Orakzai described hard, rocky soil, scarce water and a complete dependence on rain, and called cannabis a tough crop that withstands drought and needs little fertiliser. Respondents said that buyers collected the crop at the farm, so growers bore no cost of transport or storage.[2]: 139
Legal status
Cannabis cultivation was prohibited in Pakistan under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. A federal Act of 2024 created the Cannabis Control and Regulatory Authority to license cultivation for medical and industrial use. In April 2025 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa adopted cultivation rules under it that provide for registering existing cultivators.[2]: 134–135 Sharif and Ullah found most of their respondents in Orakzai confused about the new law. A community leader told them that no one from any government agency had come to explain it, and that with no licensing authority in the district growers would go on selling to the informal market.[2]: 140
In May 2026 a delegation of elders, maliks and community representatives from the Tirah Valley met the Authority in Islamabad. The Authority said the meeting was aimed at bringing traditional cannabis cultivation under a legal and regulated framework. The two sides agreed to set up a joint consultative committee on the rights of Tirah Valley growers, and the delegation asked that outside entities not be allowed to displace local cultivators.[3]
Accessions
| Accession ID | Name | Collected |
|---|---|---|
| KHA-PAK-KHY-0120250001 | Tirah Maidan Hash Plant 2025 |
Khalifa Genetics sells a line it calls Tirah Maidan Hash Plant and says its seed was collected at Tirah Maidan, in northern Tirah, by a strain hunter who gave it to the company.[6]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Hamayun, Muhammad; Shinwari, Zabta Khan (2004). "Folk Methodology of Charas (Hashish) Production and Its Marketing at Afridi Tirah, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Pakistan". Journal of Industrial Hemp. 9 (2): 41–50. doi:10.1300/j237v09n02_04.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Sharif, Shahid; Ullah, Farhat (24 June 2026). "From Prohibition to Regulation: Socio-Economic Determinants of Cannabis Production in Orakzai District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan". Review of Crime, Peace and Society: 133–143. doi:10.71261/rcps/4.2.133.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "CCRA briefs tribal leadership on National Cannabis Policy; Delegation invites DG to Tirah Valley". Associated Press of Pakistan. 8 May 2026. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Tirah". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 1005. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Siddique, Abubakar (2 June 2012). "Pakistan's Goat-Grown Hashish". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ "Tirah Maidan Hashplant". Khalifa Genetics. Retrieved 12 October 2026.