ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: The Food and Agriculture Organisation of United Nations has feared that major losses the heavy rains have caused to cash crops like cotton, sugarcane, rice and vegetables will pose a serious challenge to food security.
FAO has conducted a rapid needs assessment in flood-hit Sindh to prevent further losses of livestock and help agriculture resumption.
More than 70 per cent or 1.6 million acres of standing crops have been destroyed and nearly 14,000 farm animals lost in the disaster. The unattended carcasses are posing a potential threat of disease outbreak for both animals and humans, FAO warns.
The cotton crop has already been affected the most, and now the standing water is posing a serious threat to sugarcane and rice fields. Damage to fish and poultry farming are another setback to food security as initial count shows 1,000 fish farms and 800 poultry farms have been severely affected.
The UN body says the season to plant Rabi crops is due to begin in five weeks but there is limited scope for extending help to ensure sowing in order to provide food for early 2012.
Meanwhile, Oxfam has called on the international donor community to expedite its response in order to provide 'critical and life-saving' relief to the flood-affected people. The international aid agency warned on Monday that as the number of affected people continue to rise, deaths could increase and future of millions of people could be destroyed if funding remains slow.
“The lives of those affected by floods are hanging in the balance. Millions still don't have access to food, water, sanitation, shelter and healthcare. Pakistan cannot afford a slow response to this disaster. Time is of the essence if the situation is to be controlled. Every ounce of resource available, including those stocked up in warehouses, must be mobilised now,” said Neva Khan, Country Director of Oxfam in Pakistan.
“The number of deaths is increasing each passing day. Hundreds of thousands of people still remain trapped in floodwaters, awaiting rescue. Those who have managed to escape literally have to fight to get hold of the relief supplies being distributed. The amount of aid available is simply not enough. The government and international humanitarian and donor community must gear up their response,” said the Oxfam official.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and its partners in the cluster of aid agencies providing emergency shelter have also appealed to international donors for $67 million to help at least 274,000 vulnerable families. The 'Shelter Cluster' response, if funded, will complement the government's commitment to provide 150,000 tents for families displaced by the natural disaster.
It will include tents, plastic sheets, ropes, tent poles, sleeping mats, blankets, kitchen utensils and other life-saving survival items for at least 274,000 impoverished, displaced farming families, many of whom have lost to flood all of what little they had.