Wheat seeds distributed among farmers

Food and Agriculture Organisation begins large-scale distribution of wheat seeds.

KARACHI: The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has begun large-scale distribution of wheat seeds in Pakistan that will benefit well over half a million farming families or nearly five million people.

The distributions will mean that for these people the current Rabi planting season that ends in December will take place despite the devastation caused by the worst flooding in the country, FAO announced on its website on Wednesday.

FAO said making seeds available to vulnerable farming families is crucial because an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 tons of wheat seeds were washed away or ruined by the floods.

The food security of tens of millions of people is at stake with the current planting season. The next harvest for wheat will not be until spring 2011. FAO said it is also providing beneficiaries with vegetable seeds and fertiliser.

“Wheat is the main staple of the diet so it is of vital importance that farmers receive seeds in time. Thanks to the generous and timely response of donors, we are in a good shape to salvage the Rabi season for millions of people,” said Luigi Damiani, a senior FAO official leading the organisation’s efforts in Pakistan.

FAO said its intervention in Pakistan has so far received $67.44 million in donor support within the framework of the Revised Pakistan Floods Emergency Response Plan, out of a total funding requirement of $107 million.

More than 80 per cent of the flood victims live off agriculture, making it a crucial sector for intervention for international assistance. More than 5.9 million acres of cultivable land was damaged by the torrential waters.

Livestock too

Assistance is also being given to an additional 235,000 families to help farmers save livestock by providing food, medicine and shelter for the animals and to almost 15,000 families to rehabilitate or repair small-scale irrigation schemes.

FAO said it procures all its seed in the country and will distribute the seeds and other inputs in all the four provinces.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 28^th, 2010.