Flooding in dozens of districts in Pakistan’s Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab provinces has destroyed vast tracts of agricultural land. The country could soon face food shortages if thousands of hectares of farmland are not restored.
“We are worried that if the agricultural lands are not dried now, we will not be able to plant crops for the winter season, the most important of which is wheat production,” Nazia Bibi, a farmer in Pishin district of Balochistan. told DW.
There are fears that Pakistanis will not be able to find basic food items in the markets. To meet the challenge, the government is importing tomatoes and onions from neighboring Afghanistan and Iran.
“My existing stock of vegetables is the only one I have had for the past few days. I am waiting for the imported stock of onions and tomatoes to reach the warehouses so that we can sell them,” a vegetable seller in Islamabad told DW sitting with a cart of mostly rotten onions.
Food aid is needed
Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) is leading the relief effort in coordination with the UN and other international organizations.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has so far provided over 464,000 people in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Sindh with food assistance.
WFP added that it aims to provide food assistance to 1.9 million people facing food insecurity in flood-affected districts, according to a September situation report.
“The intensity of the situation in the villages is such that people are grabbing the ration packages from each other during the distribution. It’s really heartbreaking to see this,” Abid Mir, a social activist and professor at a university in Sindh, told DW.
Muhammad Younas, an official at the Balochistan Provincial Disaster Management Authority, told DW that foreign aid was being distributed to people through the NDMA.
“The NDMA sends assistance to the provincial disaster management authorities, who then pass it on to the district management and other administrative units.”
“International NGOs have their local partners to whom they provide their assistance. They have their own mechanisms and ways of assessing the damages and needs of the victims. However, they have to get permission from the government to work in a certain area,” Younas added.
Although the Pakistani government plans to provide cash payments to over 4.5 million flood-affected families through the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), Islamabad has been criticized for not doing enough to prepare for the monsoon season.
Saqlain Abbas, a farmer in Punjab state’s Rajanpur district, told DW that not enough measures have been taken to protect land and homes during the monsoon season.
“For years, my family has relied on growing rice and wheat to feed ourselves and now all our crops are submerged in water,” he said.
The WFP said it will start “climate resilience” programs next year in Pakistan after an initial aid response by “improving community infrastructure”.
However, renowned economist Kaiser Bengali told DW that it will not be easy for the Pakistani government to receive a large amount of aid.
“One, there is donor fatigue. Second, Pakistan should reduce non-development spending, including the non-combat defense budget, petrol rationing and stop non-essential imports to generate more money that will be required for flood rehabilitation,” he said.
The economic impact of the flooded agricultural sector
The monsoon floods come as Pakistan faces an ongoing economic crisis, with high inflation making food more expensive. Pakistan is also a major exporter of agricultural products and flood damage is likely to become a vital source of income.
For example, Pakistan is the world’s fourth largest exporter of rice.
According to the country’s Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan exported a record $2.5 billion (€2.5 billion) worth of rice during the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
Flood-hit Sindh province accounts for 42% of rice production. A report by the NGO International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) assessing crop loss in Sindh shows that the floods were particularly severe in rice-growing areas.
This has resulted in an estimated loss of 1.9 million tons of rice, equivalent to a loss of 80% of the total expected rice production in the province.
Combined with an 88% loss of sugarcane and 61% loss of cotton, the total economic impact is $1.3 billion in Sindh alone, according to the report. The three main vegetable crops in several districts in Sindh – tomato, onion and chilli – face losses of $374 million, he added.
