LODHRAN: Rainstorm on Sunday damaged cotton, maize, rice and sugarcane crops in Lodhran and other districts of south Punjab, while the maize crop was already producing low yield due to counterfeit pesticides and climate change.

The crops in Lodhran are almost ready to be harvested, but the rainstorm has turned them into grass, which has very low demand in the market.

Muhammad Khan, a farmer, told Dawn that already there was low grain production in maize crop due to counterfeit pesticides and cotton has also been damaged due to changing climate as well as fake pesticides. Agriculture officials should create awareness among farmers about climate change and the right pesticides, but they only pay visits to fulfil a departmental formality, he added.

Another farmer, Irshad Ahmed, said the government should inform farmers about modern machinery and new ways of farming. Times are changing and many seeds are meant for cold areas and seasons, but farmers are unaware of these basic technicalities of agriculture, he added.

Malik Attaullah Awan demanded the government help farmers in such crises and immediately announce financial aid and subsidies because the agriculture sector could play a vital role in the national economy. In this region, agriculture is the main source of income for locals, but now the sector faced an alarming situation because of fake pesticides and seeds in the market.

Cotton is a cash crop, but this picking season has yielded the lowest averages. Maize and rice faced a similar situation while they are ready to be harvested. Farmers blamed the pesticide and seed companies for this situation as well as the agriculture department.

According to the local agriculture department, the cotton crop yielded 365,000 acres in Lodhran, while last year the size was 401,000 acres. Rice yield was 49,000 acres as compared to 30,000 last year and maize 60,000, which was 46,500 acres last year.

Another farmer, Arsalan Aziz Shani, said the previous government gave them subsidies on fertiliser products, but the incumbent government snatched it away.

Agriculture experts say climate change had adverse impacts on fields because temperature was higher than the demand of crops, which destroyed them within days. Before September, the crops were in a very good shape and the estimated output was satisfactory, but the scenario completely changed after that. Since farmers are unaware of the climatic situation, there was a need to create awareness among them about its impacts.

Pest Warning Assistant Director Maqbool Shah told Dawn that there were several reasons behind this crisis, including temperature, time and quality of pesticides. “We are monitoring pesticide dealers and taking legal action against the guilty ones.”

Ikramul Haq, agriculture officer (plant protection) at Pest Warning and Quality Control Pesticides Lodhran, told Dawn the cotton crop was severely affected with whitefly and black sooty mould, which was due to a sudden increase in temperature and prolonged dry weather in the first fortnight of September. Similarly, pollination process of maize crop was also affected due to high temperatures, resulting in less grain formation in the cob. Same was the case with rice crop where there was a threat of a decrease in yield due to poor pollination process due to rise in temperature in September from 40 to 43 degrees Centigrade, while the normal temperature for all three crops was 35 to 38 degrees.

TOBA TEK SINGH: Torrential rain followed by heavy windstorm in wee hours of Sunday destroyed crops of maize, sugarcane, cotton and rice across Toba, Kamalia and Pirmahal tehsils.

Farmers said that the windstorm uprooted hundreds of trees and destroyed crops worth millions.

Farmer leaders from the district said the growers had faced a huge loss and the chief minister should declare Toba Tek Singh district a calamity-hit area and forego the recovery of agricultural loans, water rate, income and revenue taxes.

(Tariq Saeed from Toba Tek Singh also contributed to this report)

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2019