Flash floods: Pakistani farmers say “We Have Gone Back 50 Years”
Pakistan’s farmers are still counting their losses from the devastating floods that have put a third of the country under water, but the long-term impact is already clear.
“We have gone back 50 years,” said Ashraf Ali Bhanbro, a farmer in Sindh province whose 2,500 acres of cotton and sugarcane have now been wiped out.
The floods brought on by the record monsoon rains have devastated more than 33 million people, with Sindh in southern Pakistan being one of the worst-affected regions.
“At one stage it rained continuously for 72 hours,” said Bhanbro, I have lost at least 270 million rupees ($1.2 million) on inputs alone.”
The great Indus River cuts across the province, and along its banks, agriculture has thrived for millennia, with records of irrigation systems reaching back to 4,000 BC.
Locally record rainfall inundated the province, but there is nowhere for the water to go because the Indus is already flowing at full capacity, has breached several of its banks, and has been expanded by tributaries in the north.
“That was the cost incurred on fertilisers and pesticides… we don’t include profit, which might have been much higher as it was a bumper crop.”
Unless flooded farmlands can be drained, farmers will not be able to grow a winter wheat crop which is vital for the country’s food security.
“We have one month. If water is not discharged in that period, there will be no wheat,” he said at his farm in Sammu Khan village, Sukkur.
Flash floods: Pakistani farmers say “We Have Gone Back 50 Years”
Pakistan was self-sufficient in wheat production since years but recently her reliance on imports to ensure silos are considered as part of its strategic reserves.
