Sea Buckthorn - A Magic Plant from Northern Areas of Pakistan

People living in the mountain areas are facing serious problems and hindrances to attain sustainable livelihood and economic stability due to decrease in soil fertility, increase in the rate of erosion, non productive agriculture system and mismanagement of natural resources. The cereal crop management in these areas is unfruitful due to distinctive geographic, topographic and demographic circumstances in these deprived areas. Hence a sustainable agriculture system should be based on the sustainable utilization of natural resources for both short and long term objectives. The choice of plant species is one of these strategies to over come poverty and hunger prevailing among these mountain communities. Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhmanoides L turkestanica) is an eminent multipurpose plant species known for its nutritional, medicinal, environmental and economic importance from centuries. It has some incredible characteristics to survive under diverse and stress conditions. It can tolerate the temperature range of -40oC to +40oC and it can continue to exist under different soil pH from acidic to alkaline.