FARM-to-market roads of the vegetable producing Dadu and Jamshoro districts in Sindh have submerged in rain and floodwaters causing immense hardship to growers in taking their produce to the market.

Vegetable producing areas virtually cut off from the markets include Moundar, Phulji, Muradabad, Johi, Mehar, Khairpur Nathan Shah and Radhan in Dadu district; Bhan Saeedabad, Sehwan Sharif, Sann and Manjhand in Jamshoro district.

These areas produce brinjal, cabbage cauliflower, onion, tomato, okra (lady finger) and chilly in abundance which have been badly hit by monsoon rain, resulting immense losses to the growers.

Buxal Khan Zour, agent of the Vegetable Market Association, Dadu, said that the rains had damaged 95 per sent of okra, onion and chilly crops in Dadu, Johi, Mehar, Khairpur Nathan and adjoining areas.

He said daily supply 3,000 maunds of okra from Dadu to Hyderabad, Karachi, Nawabshah, Sukkur, Lahore and Multan markets had stopped it since the rains started in mid of August.

Agent of vegetable market in Dadu, Haji Nawab Solangi, complained that vegetable market and roads leading to market in Dadu remained submerged in rainwater and people were unable to reach the market to purchase the commodity. It was the responsibility of the taluka municipal administration and Dadu market committee officials to drain out water from the market, but they remained inactive, he added.

After the rains, Dadu traders were bringing vegetables from Quetta but these were low in quantity and poor in quality. Solangi said that rates of vegetables had risen by 80 per cent which was feared to go up further because of damages to crops.

Before the rains, okra was selling at Rs400 per maund which , now, was being sold at Rs2,000 per maund. Similarly, onions once available at Rs600 per maund was now being sold at Rs1,800 per maund. Owing to heavy rain, supply of chilly was stopped.

President Sindh Abadgar Board, Dadu, Dharam Das, complained that irrigation officials were not draining out rain water from vegetable fields; as a result, crops of chilly, onion and tomato were badly damaged.

Every year in November, farmers from Dadu district supplied daily at least 14,000-15000 maunds of chilly, 20,000-22,000 maunds of onion besides 10,000-11,000 maunds of brinjal, cabbage and cauliflower to different parts of the country, which they would not be able to supply this time owing to losses to the crops, he said.

A vegetable vendor from Dadu town, Mevo Khan Solangi, said, “people were buying poor quality potato at Rs80 and onion at Rs50 per kg from his shop in Dadu which before the rains were selling at Rs12 per kg each.”

Another vegetable farmer of Radhan in taluka Mehar, Hafeez Ahmed, said that transporters had also increased their charges.

He said he had hired a pickup for Rs600 from Radhan to Mehar vegetable market in the first week of August but after the rains, he paid Rs2,000 for the same distance. Hafeez said that 95 per cent of his vegetables crops standing on 60 acres were damaged in the rains and the rest five per cent left over that he wanted to sell could not be taken to the market because of exorbitant transport charges.

Another vegetable grower from Wahi Pandhi of Kachho belt, Ghulam Nabi Rustamani, complained that the Wahi Pandhi-Johi link road was damaged at different places due heavy rains which had made it difficult to supply farm produce from Wahi Pandhi to Johi market.

Mr Shahmir Chawhan, an official of the Taluka Municipal Administration, Dadu, said that 10 suction pumps were installed at different places in the town to drain out rainwater. These pumps would also be installed in the Dadu vegetable market to drain out water, he said.

District Agriculture officer, Dadu, Ali Nawaz Kalhoro, said that chilly crop on 5,000 acres, tomato on 1,000 acres and onion on 8,000 acres were damaged in the rain as well as seedlings of these crops under cultivation in the area.

Deputy Officer Human Resources Management, Dadu, Qurban Ali Bhutto, said that according to initial survey conducted by the roads department in all 68 link roads were damaged in recent rains. The provincial government has been approached to release over Rs326 million for the repair of these roads. He said that it was feared that more roads would be inundated during the ongoing rains which would need further survey of the damages. No sooner the rains stopped than these link roads would be repaired, he assured.