“Unimaginable” was the word the UN secretary general used while surveying the devastation from the air in Pakistan. Similar statements like “Climate change has affected Pakistan much more than its contribution to global carbon emissions; no major disaster like this has ever been seen due to climate change; justice should be done to Pakistan” are coming from the world leaders who are concerned about the loss of Pakistan due to climate change.

But things and circumstances unimaginable to the world are imaginable usual happenings and have become our lifestyle, whether it’s encroached riverbed or water mismanagement on the small scale at the farm level or village level or like recent floods and rains situation at the provincial or national level.

Pakistan has been among the most climate change affected countries in the past several years but we have been entangled in other political and social issues instead of aligning our governance and management of the key issues.

It is estimated that the damage caused by floods and rains is $30 billion to $40 billion with the loss of about 4.5 million acres of crops and killing of about one million livestock.

Those were the drivers of their financial and social livelihoods. Along with the loss of crops and livestock in the devastated communities, infrastructure was also destroyed, and the warehouses lost foodstuffs, medicines and grain.

Around 500 children have died in these floods. There are 650,000 pregnant women and girls, 73,000 of whom are expected to deliver babies in September and are mostly midwives and directly or indirectly associated with the agriculture sector.

Pakistan’s status has been changed from an agricultural exporting country in the past to a net importing country, be it wheat, seeds, agro chemicals, machinery or even edible oil. The Kharif crops of farmers have been devastated in a major part of the country whether it is rice, cotton, sugarcane or a few vegetables. Besides the crops, a majority of the inputs for the upcoming crops have also been destroyed or flushed with the rainwater, machinery like tractors will also require the extensive and expensive repair to get ready before the Rabi crops if the water is drained or evaporated and the fields are ready to be cultivated, which need good amount of investment too.

Fodder in major areas of Sindh, Balochistan and southern parts of Punjab has been destroyed in the past few weeks which has created an imbalance in the demand and supply to the biggest livestock and dairy market of the country in Karachi. It has not only has raised the demand for fodder and silage but also passed the price pressure to common man in terms of higher milk and meat prices.

Maize is an important crop of Pakistan and comparatively the contribution of the autumn corn (cultivated in July ) is usually less than the corn cultivated in spring in terms of area and production which means the demand of fodder and silage in the devastated area and nearby markets will increase the demand of the green crop creating shortage of the grain ultimately challenging the poultry industry in the form of feed causing the higher prices of poultry meat and eggs due to the higher cost of production or the farming community.

Wheat is the most important staple of Pakistan and we have been facing a serious shortage in the previous years due to a lack of interest of farmers, lower or untimely announcement of support price, lower productivity either due the unavailability or black marketing of phosphorus and urea fertilizers and Pakistan has to import wheat on very higher prices just because of the poor governance and mismanagement at the local level in the country.

This year again I am afraid we can face more severe challenges due to the challenges coupled with the impacts of climate change in the form of raisin, floods and displacements.

What can be done immediately?

After the 18th amendment ensuring the National Food Security is the responsibility of the federal government. Agriculture and livestock, and dairy are the domains of provincial governments. No government, state or agency can alone support the devastated communities; people have to own not only the state but the nation as well. We need to understand, agriculture is not the only farmer, there is the whole agriculture value chain involved in it from the extension workers to the input suppliers and the processors till the retailers.

Kharif crops are destroyed and the farmers are already under debt as banks are less involved in the lending for crop inputs and the middleman more in case of small and medium farmers, so the farmers are already under informal debt with higher interest rates for the already devastated crops and for Rabi the land is not ready due to do the standing water in the fields and farmer having no money in hand.

The water experts and the irrigation ministries with the support of the federal government should immediately start thinking on the solutions to make the land and soil ready for the cultivation of rabi crops.

The government should immediately push the banks to provide interest-free loans to all the farmers in the devastated regions for their next crops to not only buy inputs but the machinery as well. The international and national agricultural input suppliers companies including seed, fertilizer and pesticides in crop farming and the medicine, feed and fodder companies in the livestock sectors should be invited on the table to share their profits with their devastated stakeholders (farmers), who are the ultimate buyers of their products for last many years, generating profits for these companies.

The key decision for the short terms are to immediately drain the water in the fields within the next few weeks to get the land ready for the Rabi crops cultivation, immediate provision of the farmer-package comprising inputs and high yielding seeds and the building a strong relationship between research institutions, universities and extension to support farmers and rural labourers in the fields. Researchers and the experts should immediately be deployed to identify the crops and seeds for the cultivation in the flood-affected areas to get most of the productivity with less inputs and cost of production to lower the country’s import bill in these hard times.

Farmers are not really concerned about the statements coming out of the global or national leadership, they just know that they are devastated by heavy rains, floods and weather abnormality and looking for financial support to feed themselves, their kids and their animals, saving their lives for the future.

(The writer is a progressive farmer from Pakpattan)

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2022