Azam Gul, a 55-year-old farmer in Kamala village, Lower Dir District said, “The waters brought a lot of clay, now I do not know what to do with this 15-centimetre thick layer covering the land.” Azam will have to till the land before sowing and this will embed the clay deep into the soil. “I am not sure that my next harvest will be successful,” he added.
People living on the banks of the Swat River are facing worse challenges as the floods have swept away the entire patches of agricultural land or littered arable land with heavy stones and sand. Those farmers, who were lucky enough to have only lost their crops, fear that the soil has been irreparably damaged. Farmers said that the “once rich and brown soil has turned grey and hard and that green shoots are not returning”.
Throughout K-P and FATA, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in collaboration with Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has identified 30,000 families in dire need of help in rebuilding their livelihoods. These families lost their crops after the floods washed away their fields. In other instances, they had no choice but to leave behind their crops.
ICRC and PRCS claim that by the end of November they will distribute to each family 30 kilogrammes (kg) of wheat seeds, 100 kg of fertilizers and a set of hand tools. Over 20,000 families in Balochistan will benefit from the same aid in the coming days.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2010.
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