Floods to hit agriculture hard

Agriculture to be severely impacted by mud, water-logging and non-availability of infrastructure and farm machinery.

KARACHI: Agriculture activities are likely to be severely impacted by mud, water-logging and non-availability of infrastructure and farm machinery in the current fiscal year 2010-11, the State Bank’s annual report for 2009-10 said.

The agriculture sector is likely to be hit hard in FY11 because of the losses to standing crops by recent floods, it said.

The floods have had devastating impact on agriculture, which was otherwise poised to achieve a significantly higher growth.

“Not only were the standing Kharif crops were severely damaged by the floods and heavy rains in the country’s main agriculture districts, some parts of the flood-hit area may not even be available for cultivation in the Rabi season,” the report said.

Earlier, agriculture growth dropped to two per cent in FY10 from four per cent in the preceding year. This deceleration was entirely attributed to negative growth by the crop sub-sector, which partly offset the impact of acceleration in livestock growth.

The crop sub-sector suffered due to water shortages, particularly at sowing time, decline in availability of certified seeds relative to FY09 and an uncertain price outlook for rice and sugarcane during the sowing period. These factors primarily led to a decline in area under cultivation and yields of major crops.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2010.