30% of bumper crop to rot

Agriculture sector suffering due to lack of storage facilities.

ISLAMABAD:

Despite the devastating floods of 2010, Pakistan has managed to achieve bumper crop this year. However, due to a lack of storage facilities, 30% of the crop harvested this year ended up rotting.

With early warnings of monsoon and floods expected this year as well, stakeholders involved in the agriculture sector are expressing concern over management-related issues. Officials working in the development sector have said that storage is virtually non-existent with crops being left to rot under the open sky.

“The lack of storage results for wheat is one of the major issues and challenge for Pakistan today” said a development sector official.

A UN official told The Express Tribune about his visit to areas in Punjab where there was large-scale production but the crop (wheat) was just left to rot in the open sky all day.

“The weather was cloudy, there were spotted rains in some areas and more rain was expected, it was a sad picture to see a bumper crop but no preservation” said the official.

However, there is good news for the next few years. A USAID official working on a project for flood-affected areas said wheat would be highly productive for at least another four  years. Silt which resulted into rocky soil this year will become very soft when it is ploughed next year and if water availability is sustained, production will increase next year.

The official added that even If production remained the same over the next four years, the total benefits just from the wheat crop are estimated around $700 million.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2011.