Floods-hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Balochistan: 630,000 tons of wheat produced under USAID project

The flood-hit areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Balochistan produced 630,000 tons wheat worth $175 million under $62 million USAID Agriculture Recovery Project, claimed an official of the US agency who requested not to be named.
Briefing a group of journalists here on Tuesday, the USAID official said that the Agriculture Recovery Project, which was launched on September 16 last year at a cost of $62 million after the devastating floods, was scheduled to end on June 30, providing direct benefit of $185 million to flood-affected farmers of 22 districts of the three provinces of the country.
Giving details, he said that the agency distributed wheat seed packages (seed plus fertiliser) to 410,000 flood-hit farming families of the three provinces, who got production worth $175 million. He said that 449,585 acres of land was cultivated using certified wheat seed, which produced 630,000 tons of wheat.
The USAID expert further said that productivity might be more than the current year because of improved seed, improved soil and irrigation water availability. Similarly, the USAID provided direct inputs for livestock including animal feed, fodder seed and medicines worth $8 million, he said, adding that the agency also provide cash to rehabilitate the silted watercourses with an amount of $2 million.
In total 569,605 families benefited, which at the rate of seven per cent farming family, comes to a total population of 4.5 million directly benefiting from the project. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation was the implementing partner of the agency.
Regarding the indirect benefits of the project, he said that the wheat seed was going to be highly productive for at least another four years while the silt, which resulted into a rocky soil this year, will become very soft when it would be ploughed next year and if water availability remains the same next year, using the same seed, production would be more than the current year.
He further said that even if production remains the same, as it was this year, the total benefit over the next four years just from the wheat crop would be worth $700 million, he elaborated, and added that the on-farm watercourse rehabilitation would also be helpful to transport water from source to fields for another five to seven years.
He said that the USAID provided 50 kg certified wheat seed, 50-kg urea fertiliser and 50 kg DAP to each 410,000 farming family under the project. The USAID officials was of the view that the farmers were still facing enormous challenges because of little knowledge and expertise to increase production of their crops, adding that around 30 per cent crops was being wasted annually due to lack of knowledge. He, however, added that the floods-affected farming families have now come out of the shock of loss of livelihood.