LAHORE: Pakistan Hi Tech Hybrid Rice Association (PHHSA) Chairman Shahzad Ali Malik Thursday said recent monster flood in Pakistan devastated 80 percent Rice in Sindh and 60 percent in South Punjab besides playing havoc flushing infrastructure roads,bridges and completely wiping out economic activities in flood hit areas of the country in addition to record number of people displacement.
Chairing an executive committee of the association here today he said the highest inundation was recorded in rice crop zone of Sindh which caused loss of 1.8 million tons of rice or 80 percent loss of its expected production and same was sorry state of affairs in southern Punjab with 60 percent damage to rice crops.He said whereas cotton and sugarcane zone of Sindh received lesser inundation during flooding.However,both zones received several exceptional high daily rainfalls which almost completely destroyed cotton crops at maturity.
He said according to preliminary estimates,all three commercial crops including veggie and livestock in both provinces caused at least loss to the tune of US$3 bn.
He said the deadly flash flood will lead to a higher import more food in the country where 43 percent of the population is already faced with food insecurity.He said the repercussion of flood may include higher imports,compromise on export and rising inflation which will dent efforts to tackle the macro headwinds.
Shahzad Ali Malik called upon the Sindh and Punjab governments to fully availability of required water at least to save the existing standing crops of paddy.He said what we need is immediate disbursement of interest free loans to all flood affected farmers to enable them cultivate next crops timely to meet national food grains needs.He urged the government to fully ensure the availability of fertilisers, certified seeds and power at subsidised rates.
He suggested the government to ban use of all kinds of non certified seeds throughout the country and only hi tech hybrid seeds or certified seeds be used for bumper production which will also definitely increase their profitability as well.
