KARACHI: Recent heavy rain and subsequent flooding have caused widespread damage to various crops across the province, resulting in an estimated loss of Rs86.86 billion to farmers, according to a preliminary report on the rain-induced losses released by Sindh Minister for Agriculture Sardar Mohammad Bux Mehar on Monday.

The minister provided a breakdown of the damage, stating that 541,351 acres of crops had been completely destroyed, specifically 293,580 acres of cotton crop had been seriously affected by the downpour.

Rice crop had been completely destroyed on 35,271 acres and partially damaged on 269,016 acres, similarly, date palm had suffered massive losses on 53,195 acres and partial loss on 32,849 acres, he said.

The minister noted that sugar cane crop had been completely destroyed on 26,382 acres and partially damaged on 69,689 acres. The heavy rain had led to 21 per cent loss in cotton and 41 per cent loss in date palm produce, he said.

Additionally, he said, tomato nurseries had experienced 3.4 pc loss, sesame 22 pc, onion 58 pc, chili 12 pc and vegetables suffered 18 pc loss.

The minister said the districts which were severely pounded by the rains included, Badin, Dadu, Ghotki, Sukkur, Hyderabad, Larkana, Sanghar, Thatta, Sujawal, Mirpurkhas, Khairpur, Umerkot, Tando Allahyar, Shikarpur, Shaheed Benazirabad, Matiari, Tando Mohammad Khan and Tharparkar.

He instructed the agriculture department to take immediate measures to protect the crops that had been partially affected by rain and help prevent further losses.

AT holds government responsible

Awami Tehreek has lashed out at Sindh government for widespread damage caused by recent heavy rain and accused rulers of deliberately allowing the province to get inundated again so that they can mint more money in the name of rehabilitation and relief.

A meeting of central organising committee of the party chaired by AT’s central organiser Wasand Thari here the other day observed that hundreds of villages and standing crops were submerged in rainwater across Sindh.

The meeting said the government failed to desilt canals as the huge funds meant for strengthening the canals’ embankments had been embezzled. As a result, many canals’ dykes developed breaches and caused flooding in villages and farmland, it said.

It condemned inaction by the National Disaster Management Authority and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority and the government failure to provide succour to rain-hit people. The authorities had been created only to stomach the relief meant for rain-hit people, said the meeting.

The meeting decided to hold protests against provincial government and said that large scale corruption had taken place in the funds meant for the reconstruction of houses damaged in 2022 heavy rains and flood.

It lambasted the government for the failure of the rehabilitation project it had launched in collaboration with NGOs and demanded the government pay compensation to farmers for the huge losses to their crops and houses.

The meeting demanded registration of cases against rulers for widespread destruction in the province caused by recent heavy rains and said people should be rescued immediately.

The meeting was attended by party leaders, Sajid Hussain, Lal Jarwar, Abdul Qadir Ranto, Noor Katiar and others.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2024