Recent rains, floods: Analyst calls for removing water from farmlands on urgent basis

KARACHI: Currently, Pakistan is facing destruction beyond imagination, the whole country looks like a sea after floods, said Ateeq ur Rahman, economic and financial analyst.

During the devastation by rains and floods, almost like 35 million people got affected. Hundreds of thousands were left homeless.

There have been tremendous human losses. In terms of financial losses it’s like US 12 billion dollars to $ 15 billion.

He added that on one hand people desperately need humanitarian support in terms of shelter, food, safety, medicines, etc and on the other hand we need to dewater the agriculture lands, so that the wheat crop could be sown to avoid the “famine like situation”.

The rice crop, almost 35% of the total rice crop has been damaged therefore cannot meet the production or export targets. Similarly for cotton, the forecast is, all is lost minimum like 70%, said Ateeq.

The recent floods washed away our entire crops thus compounding the country into “food emergency situation”.

For immediate results, it is advised that we have to go for hybrid cultivation, he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022