Focus on farmers in the earthquake zone

Aurangzaib Khan comes from a long line of farmers: the 41-year-old’s father was a farmer, as was his grandfather, and his 15-year-old son Waleed Zaib dreams of carrying on the tradition. But in the aftermath of last year's devastating earthquake in northern Pakistan, which left more than 75,000 people dead and 3.5 million homeless, the prospect of that happening is diminishing. Tens of thousands of farmers face the daunting task of rebuilding their lives after they lost their homes and livelihoods in the 8 October disaster in Pakistani-administered Kashmir and the country’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP). "The earthquake has badly affected my business. I don't know if I will ever recover," Khan conceded, gazing out over his 13ha farm on the shores of the Jhelum River in Khoun Boundway, 20km east of Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir. Many of the outbuildings that housed his tools, equipment, seeds and livestock collapsed in the earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, while others still teeter dangerously close. Nine months after the disaster, Khan's fields lay fallow, while adjacent orchards, once brimming with fruit, are bare despite their close proximity to the river and ample water. Khan maintains that planting this year was pointless, pointing to the collapsed water-pump system that once irrigated his fields. "Water is a must for rice," the father-of-four said. "And I don't have any money to fix the water irrigation channels." In the past he would gather his crop for market and sell it in Rawalpindi near the capital, Islamabad, earning up to US $300 a month. "It's all gone now," he lamented. "I've lost everything." Khan's plight is indicative of many farmers in the 30,000 sq km quake zone, many of whom feel neglected by the government and wonder how they will recover. "No one is helping us. No one at all," one disgruntled farmer further down the road remarked, kicking the dry soil of his once lush fields. AGRICULTURE IN THE QUAKE ZONE According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the earthquake hit areas are some of the poorest regions in Pakistan, with 43 percent of the population of Pakistani-administered Kashmir and 34 percent in NWFP living below the poverty line. The areas belong to a dry zone where farming is based on a mixture of crops, livestock and forestry activities. Most farms are owner-operated, with an average cultivable holding of half a hectare.

A rice field along the banks of the Jhelum River. Agriculture took a devastating blow in the 8 October quake

"Small-scale farmers' productivity is constrained by small, fragmented holdings, harsh climatic conditions, low quality seeds, limited fertiliser use and poor pest and disease control," the FAO's programme profile on regional livelihoods reported last month. The food security of most households depended on their crops (maize, wheat, rice and vegetables), milk produced by buffalo or cattle, as well as income generated by family members working as temporary labourers off the farm, the report said. The importance of agriculture for some four million people living in the area meant more needed to be done, experts said. According to the NGO Oxfam, in Pakistani-administered Kashmir 80 percent of crops and 50 percent of arable land were destroyed, while more than 100,000 head of cattle died. THE CHALLENGE AHEAD "The impact on all farmers was tremendous," Hilde Niggemann, an official with the FAO's emergency and rehabilitation division for Asia and Latin America, said from Rome. "The earthquake has taken away from farmers their essential production means," she said, citing the large stocks of seeds that were lost in the disaster. FAO is working hard to re-establish livestock numbers and rehabilitate small scale irrigation systems but the challenge is great. Niggemann said these were areas where immediate assistance was essential, noting much more would be needed in the future. After the earthquake struck, FAO reported that crops of maize, rice, fodder and to a certain extent trees and fruits, could not be harvested, while crops that had been were lost in collapsed houses or stores. At the same time, farmers were unable to harvest remaining standing crops of maize - the staple cereal crop in the area - resulting in a large portions rotting or being eaten by unattended livestock. Last year's rice harvest in the quake zone was never completed, resulting in a grain and seed loss, and much of the region's irrigation system was damaged, as were terraces and fields due to landslides. Today a reduction in livestock numbers continues as animals abandoned by families die or are sold due to poverty or a lack of fodder, housing and labour. FAO has reported incidents of 'distress' selling of livestock - sometimes at prices of 30 to 50 percent below the market value. According to Tim Vaessen, the FAO's senior emergency coordinator in Pakistan, at the time of the quake crops were either being harvested or being stored. "It was really dependent on the altitude of the houses whether they lost standing crops or stored crops," he explained. As for livestock, many animals died under the rubble, while others roamed around unattended. Animals at lower altitudes tended to fare better, with many animals kept at higher altitudes under shelter when the quake struck. "People didn't have any time to retrieve anything. They [the farmers] lost quite a lot," Vaessen said. Meanwhile, FAO, in conjunction with the government's Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), continues to work to mitigate some of the damage - dispatching assessment teams to the region as well as distributing wheat and maize seed and fertiliser and animal feed to thousands of households.