MULTAN: The majority of the people affected by the October 8 earthquake were farmers with small landholdings, while rearing livestock was also their occupation. The tragedy of the families, suffering from loss of precious human lives, has aggravated with the economic injuries the earthquake inflicted to them.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has estimated losses in the agriculture, livestock and irrigation sectors to the tune of $440 million in the quake-hit areas of Azad Kashmir and North West Frontier Province, (NWFP). The fields; in these areas were mainly terraces stretched out along the mountain slopes.
The land and rock sliding triggered by the quake trampled the entire fields and orchards. The infrastructure like farm-to-market roads, agricultural extension services and farm machinery have also been hit hard in the affected areas. Land and rock slides have also damaged the natural and man-made water courses alike.
Experts say that the massive land sliding is the outcome of unabated deforestation that had been taking place in the hands of timber mafia in Azad Kashmir and the Hazara division of the frontier province for the last few decades. “The infrastructural losses might have been less, had the forest cover been intact in the quake-hit areas,” they added. When the earthquake rocked struck, most of the herds were in their pens, erected mostly with unstable river stones and roofed with heavy logs.
The devastation was beyond any description. Human beings, animals and plants all were the victims of the natural calamity. The damage to the life and assets continued in the wake of harsh weather, absence of shelter and land sliding owing to aftershocks and heavy rains. The livestock, that survived the calamity, had to be either slaughtered or disposed of at throw away prices while the ready crops like maize and rice could not be harvested completely due to the non-availability of labour and the relevant machinery.
“It was not possible for us to go for the harvest, while being shocked by the loss of the loved ones and property,” people told this reporter during a visit of the quake-hit areas of Balakot, Battal, Batgram and A’lai in the NWFP.
The disaster has, no doubt, disoriented the affected people about life and its ingredients. It is a calamity never experienced before in the 58-year history of the country.
Therefore, the reconstruction of both life and the infrastructure in the quake-devastated areas will be a gigantic task by all means.
However, early rehabilitation of the agriculture and livestock sectors will be more beneficial than anything else in the reconstruction phase keeping in view that the majority of the affected families earned their livelihood from these two occupations.
The international agencies in collaboration with the federal ministry of Agriculture and Livestock has assessed that around US $500 million will be needed over a period of five years for the recovery of agricultural sector in the quake-hit areas.
The reconstruction activities in the farm sector have been listed as the supply of inputs, rehabilitation of the damaged infrastructure of the farm-to-market roads and restoration of agricultural services and markets. However, lacking in the relief and reconstruction process is the involvement of the affected people.
The affairs in the quake-hit areas are, too much, concentrated in the hands of the men in uniform. Their services could be commendable in early days of the calamity but in the rehabilitation and reconstruction process their role should be trimmed down as of the facilitators working under the civilian authorities.
Analysts say that the military men are trained in warfare and not in social services. “It’s a delicate task to work with the people who have lost almost everything in life in a minute or so,” they emphasized.
