Flood in the River Indus and heavy rains have badly affected the production of major crops - rice, cotton and sugarcane - in the province. The flood affected areas in Sindh on both side of the Indus where large non-perennial area, known as kutcha area, has been inundated causing damage to standing crops.
The breaches in canals in the cotton-belt areas had further aggravated the situation by submerging the villages and standing crops on thousands of acres.
The agriculture experts are of the view that if the rains continue up to mid-September during the current monsoon season things would get worse and there is strong possibility that the agriculture growth rate might record a decline. These experts maintain that the cotton crop would be badly affected because of flood and rains. Massive pest attack would also damage it badly.
In view of the damaging impact of flood and rains in major cotton provinces of Punjab and Sindh the prospects of achieving cotton production target has been diminished.
The experts expressed apprehensions that the cotton production may record a shortfall of 25 to 30 per-cent during 2005-06 cropping season.
The sugar crisis, which forced the government to allow import of 0.1 million tons, will continue next year as the area under sugarcane cultivation in Sindh has been declined by 17 per cent compared to last year while a large area of standing sugarcane crop reported to have been damaged both in Sindh and Punjab due to floods with the result the production would be quite low and would not be able to meet the domestic requirement. This compelled the government to import more sugar.
Similarly, due to damage to the rice crop the production would be lower, which might have negative impact on rice export.
As the deluge is moving towards the Kotri Barrage submerging villages and thousands of acres of land people are helplessly watching their prize crop rotting under the floodwater.
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