PAKISTAN – POSSIBLE FOOD SECURITY CRISIS AFTER FLOODS
Severe climate changes and torrential Monsoon rains have caused the worst floods in Pakistan. Several international organizations did warn, in advance, Pakistan about these consequences of severe climate changes. However, there was no planning at the government level (both federal and provincial), resulting in the loss of thousands of precious lives, the displacement of countless people, the irreparable loss of basic infrastructure, valuable property and livestock. I won’t into the details of horrifying numbers and statistics of damages and losses as they are publicly available, already.
Along with this, we are facing another very scary situation and that is the destruction of our agricultural crops and commodities. In Sindh, Punjab, KP and Balochistan, crops of cotton, sugarcane, dates, bananas, rice, maize, tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables have been destroyed, completely. Given the floods, wheat cultivation seems quite difficult too. The damage caused by floods in Sindh alone is estimated to be more than PKR 500 billion. The situations in of other provinces are not different from Sindh.
The destruction of agriculture and livestock illustrates the dire situation of possible food security challenges in the future. Pakistan, already suffering from severe economic crisis, where inflation is increasing rapidly on a daily basis, destruction of essential crops, vegetables and fruits is a precursor to a serious food crisis, on which all the stake holders and authorities must, urgently, devise strategy and plans to avert this possible but horrific challenge. Otherwise, the nation will have to face famine after floods.
@hsawan
August 29, 2022
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