Professor Dr Muhammad Ali Chang, Former Dean & Chairman, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics and expert on agriculture issues has said that monsoon rains this season have played havoc in Sindh, displacing millions of people and adversely affecting livestock and standing crops especially in middle to lower Sindh.
He expressed these views while speaking to Business Recorder. He said the economy of the country is shattered as it is mainly agricultural based. Most of the major crops like cotton, rice and sugar cane, and vegetables like onion, chillies and others grown during summer season in Sindh are badly affected, that is why the prices of vegetables have gone up and have gone out of the reach of ordinary people.
Dr Chang said that according to the preliminary reports, crops in standing water were fully damaged in the rain-hit areas in Badin, Thatta, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Sanghar, Nawab Shah and Noshehro Feroz districts and still submerged in water. Even the Prime Minister of Pakistan, during his aerial visit, described the loss caused due to rains to the life and property 'beyond imagination'.
According to the estimates presented by the finance minister on 14th October 2011 in the National Assembly, on an overall 11.3 percent loss in the production of cotton has been noticed. During this year, 11.460 million bales have been obtained, as against the production achieved during the last year ie 12.931 million bales. The above statement appears to be close to reality. Sindh province on an average produces about 3.5 million bales of cotton crop, whereas the area of Sindh producing about 2.5 millions bales of cotton crop has been severally affected, he added.
The expert said that a shortfall of about 1.87 millions bales over the production achieved during the previous year could be easily ascribed to the loss caused by rain and the standing water to the cotton crop in Sindh. The natural calamity of this stature has already caused heavy loss to the country. Therefore, the leaders of Pakistan made appeals to the international community for help. The question is as to what extent we as a nation are ready to work for the wellbeing of the people of Pakistan, he remarked.
He further said that presently Pakistan is confronted with multiple problems. Food security is one of such problems. Rabi season has already started from the month of October, while the sowing season for wheat crops starts in Sindh province from 15th October and continues up to 15th December every year. In Sindh, wheat crop is cultivated on more than 1.0 million hectors producing wheat crop of more than 3.5 millions tonnes whereas, Pakistan on a whole produces about 24.0 million tonnes of wheat crop.
Dr Chang said that monsoon rainwater is still standing in the cultivable land of Sindh, when stagnant water would be drained out of the fields is still not clear. The small farmers who make the bulk of the community have lost almost everything. Whether they have any money to buy seed and cultivate their land after it comes in condition, is another story. The next episode is supply of urea and phosphate fertilisers for wheat crop. He informed that the present scenario of urea fertiliser is that three units namely Dawood Hercules, Pak-Arab and Engro Fertiliser (urea) with an average monthly production capacity of 200,000 tonnes are closed since last month due to short supply of natural gas.
Therefore, there are speculations that the government might have to import about 0.80 million tonnes of urea fertiliser to meet the shortage. Looking at the shortage for current Rabi season the prices of urea fertiliser have already gone up and now have reached to Rs 1800-2000/- per bag of 50kg. The government might have to spend millions of US dollars on import of fertiliser and a subsidy of more than 20.0 billions rupees on the sale of fertiliser. Due to the closure of fertiliser units, government will further loose billions of rupees recoverable in shape of taxes, he added.
He pointed out that chief minister Sindh Syed, Qaim Ali Shah recently promised to provide free of cost seeds and fertilisers to growers of rains and flood affected areas of the province. The plight of poor farmers is already miserable; government machinery must move fast to help genuine farmers in the shape of grants ie seed and fertiliser free of cost as promised. If not, they may be granted easy loans for purchase of seed and fertiliser for their new wheat crop to restore their shattered economy.