HomeWorldPakistanRecord monsoon rains add rapidly rising food inflation, insecurity

Record monsoon rains add rapidly rising food inflation, insecurity

KARACHI: An unprecedented monsoon spell that caused widespread destruction in Pakistan also addition to already escalation of food inflation, in addition to exacerbating fears of food insecurity in country.

With food inflation already breaks through the roof in 30 percent ongoing monsoon periods destroyed great amount of ready to-reap crops across the country, causing shortages of staples, vegetables and fruits in markets and, consequently, in price rise of essential goods.

Heavy downpours along with the flood still killed over 500 people in country from June 14, in addition to the flood millions of acres of farmland in all four provinces, as well as Gilgit-Baltistan and the Kashmir Valley.

Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, was the hardest hit, where heavy rains destroyed large swaths of agricultural land and gardens in over a dozen districts that are major suppliers of fruits not only to the province, but also to the rest of country too.

“The continuing (monsoon) not only hit manufacturers hard but also caused inflationary pressure, which will subsequently have a dangerous spiraling effect on the entire food chain of the country,” said Syed Mahmood Nawaz Shah, an agronomist from Sindh.

In an interview with the Anadolu agency, Shah said that because of the owner of factors, Pakistan already struggle with decisive issue of food insecurity, which is likely to be exacerbated by the destruction caused unprecedented monsoon rains.

“The forthcoming spells could bring further destruction in general, including the agricultural sector,” he warned.

In Punjab and Sindh, population growth and housing needs in recent years have turned into big bands of green land into a concrete jungle, not only in in big cities, but in small also districts. Regions count as two main bread baskets.

Monsoon rains have long been damaging on Pakistan in terms of loss of life and destruction of already fragile infrastructures. But climate change has further increased their frequency, severity and unpredictability. in last years.

The country received 87 percent more rains this monsoon season so far compared to past yearaccording to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.

Shortage is inevitable

The ongoing rainy season, according to Shah, caused about 50 billion rupees worth of loss of the agricultural sector in Sind alone.

He also said that the relentless rains had severely damaged cotton, dates, chili peppers, cauliflower, onions and other fruits and vegetables. in Sindh and Balochistan.

Sindh accounts for 55 percent of onion production in the country. Shah said about 70 percent of onion harvest in Sindh was destroyed by the rains.

According to him, the only crop that has benefited from the rains is rice.

Supporting Shah’s observations, Dabi Books Bugti, official The Balochistan Department of Agriculture said heavy rains and flooding had caused damage on grains, vegetables and fruits in provinces.

In the eastern regions of Balochistan of Sibi, Jal Magsi, Barkhan, Jaffarabad, Avaran, Sokhbatpur, Lasbela and Nasirabad, cotton, rice and vegetables took a huge hit due to the ongoing rainy seasons, Bugti told Anadolu news agency.

He added this cotton and rice harvest in these areas were destroyed to 50-80 percent and 20-30 percent, respectively.

In the western regions of Balochistan, known for fruit production – mainly apples, grapes and peaches – rains also took payment.

About 50-60 percent of peach harvest and 30 percent of in apple The crop has been damaged by recent downpours and flash floods, he said.

Shaukat Ali Chadhar, President of Kisan Board Pakistan, a participating NGO in Agriculture research and development noticed that, in addition to destroying finished crops, the rainy season also disturbed harvest period in Punjab, country main Bread basket.

Chadhar said that in Punjab, Mr. government and non-governmental organizations are trying to assess the “huge” damage caused by rains and floods. on cotton and corn crops.

Punjab shares the biggest chunk of countries total cotton production.

In the central and upper Punjab, Chadhar went on say corn and vegetables like pumpkins, cabbages and chilies were destroyed by the rains.

“It will definitely cause shortage and rise in Prices of these items in days to come,” he said.

Added value also affected

According to official numbers, 38 percent of Pakistan population of over 229 million is directly busy in the agricultural sector, which was bad hit due to heavy rains and floods.

“The damage to the agricultural sector will affect not only producers. In fact it will backfire on in future crops as financially disturbed farmers already struggling against increasing production costs,” Shah said.

“Is not over for now. Less production (of crops) means less value added, which result in reduction of jobs (pertaining to value-added sectors),” he said, referring to processes like packaging and transportation of harvest.

Destruction of the date crop

Date makers were the worst hit in and Sindh and Balochistan – almost 70% of date harvest was destroyed.

Farmers are waiting for the harvest of about 220,000 tons this year, but the rains have already destroyed 150,000 tons, according to Mohammad Bashir Arain, chairman of Khairpur Date Traders Association.

Pakistan is the world’s fifth largest dating producer, having contributed 11 percent to global production, with grown about 130 varieties in country.

Khairpur district one of largest date growing areas in in world.

India buys 400,000 metric tons annually of dried dates, commonly known as Chokhara, from Pakistan, mainly from Khairpur.

Impact of climate change

Pakistan one of ten countries poorly hit climate change and global warming.

Newly Released global climate report of the UN World Meteorological Organization warned that region should now wait heat wave exceeding record temperature in 2010 every three years.

Without climate change it added such extreme temperatures occur only once every 312 years.

heat waves common for Pakistan and India in May, June and July. But summer came early this yearbringing the temperature up new highs in March.

According to a UN report, climate change is leading to intense heat record- destruction temperature 100 times more probably.

Report based on a heat wave that hit northwest India and Pakistan in April and May 2010 when region saw him highest average temperatures since 1900

If climate change follows predicted trends in According to the study, Pakistan and India can expect similarly high temperatures almost every year. year by the end of in century.

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Sandra Loyd
Sandra Loyd
Sandra is the Reporter working for World Weekly News. She loves to learn about the latest news from all around the world and share it with our readers.

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