Flood-hit Dir growers ineligible for payout

NDMA stipulates only farms measuring 21 kanal or above could get compensation

UPPER DIR:

Farmers in the mountainous Upper Dir district will not be able to get compensation for their crops and land swept away by overflowing rivers and flash floods due to the policy guidelines of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

Official sources told The Express Tribune that as per the NDMA policy only those farmers will be compensated for their losses of standing crops who have at least 21 kanal of land in one stretch.

“Any farm or patch of land less than 21 kanal in size is not eligible for compensation as per the policy. So in Dir Upper farmers will not be able to receive the compensation package from the government,” official sources said, adding that agriculture land in the mountains of Dir was hundreds of acres but most families or individuals possessed less than 21 kanal of land in one place and scattered pieces of land would not be compensated.

It may be mentioned here that thousands of acres of land has been swept away along the rivers and nullah as well as mountain streams in the recent floods in the district but the policy would leave most farmers without government aid. “Dir is a mountainous area where people have scattered lands and it is highly unusual to have 21 kanal of land in one stretch,” the official observed, adding that farmers suffered enormous losses in the district like the rest of the country but during the policymaking stage the stakeholders were not included in the process.

He added that in the entire Malakand Division farmers would be affected from this policy introduced by the federal government mainly for non-mountainous areas of K-P, Punjab and Sindh.

When contacted Director Agriculture Dir Upper Pervaz Khan also confirmed that the federal government policy would leave most of the farmers in the mountainous districts of K-P without any compensation.

“A survey has been conducted to assess the losses of the farmers but not a single farm was found eligible under this policy. No family or individual owns 21 kanal land in one place,” he maintained.

He observed that the agriculture department has submitted its own recommendations taking into account the extent of damage to the agriculture farmers in the district.

“Crops on 1,720 acre of land have been destroyed in the district including maize on 1,200 acre, rice on 75 acre, vegetables on 235 acre and fruit trees on 211 acre,” he said, adding that these poor farmers needed urgent aid to restart their lives anew.

“We have recommended provision of 20,000 bags of seed but it is expected that the government would include pesticides and agriculture implements in the relief package,” he shared.

A local farmer Israr said that not a single farmer owned even more than five kanal in one stretch in Upper Dir and the policy of compensating growers with large farms could be effective in Punjab or Sindh and non-mountainous districts of K-P, but it will not work in Malakand Division.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2022.