Drought-affected still need food aid

Although the spring harvest and a carry-over from last year’s bumper crop are expected to satisfy domestic wheat and cereal consumption this year, UN experts maintain that up to 350,000 people in Pakistan’s drought-afflicted western provinces will still require emergency food assistance. “There’s no problem at the national level, but Baluchistan and Sindh have always been in food deficit,” Joyce Luma, a WFP officer who participated in this year’s crop and food supply assessment, told IRIN. Baluchistan, parts of Sindh and Cholistan in Punjab, were still bearing the brunt of the drought damage, she said. Livestock numbers had been reduced by up to 60 percent of their 1999 levels, while fruit farmers faced financial ruin with the decimation of orchards due to acute water shortages. “There is literally nothing left of the fruit trees, which until recently was a stable crop in parts of Baluchistan. People are cutting down and selling the wood for fuel,” she said. Whereas trees would produce over 5,000 rupees’ [US $77] worth of fruit each, a bundle of firewood was fetching a mere 25 rupees [40 US cents]. “A tree takes eight years to grow to maturity, so this is a big loss to fruit farmers,” Loma explained. Even relatively well-off families were struggling, she said. “One Baluch family we visited lost all but 18 of their herd of 200 animals. They also owned a restaurant, which used to be booming. They were big employers in the area but, as no-one has any money, they’ve sent their staff to work in Punjab and Karachi,” she said. Although wheat prices had remained stable in the last year, the 50 percent drop in household income had meant that even basic foods were now expensive for many families. Loma said households were coping by sending young men off to work in the irrigated fields of neighbouring Sindh and Punjab provinces. While itinerant workers used to stay for just one season, many of them were now opting to stay on rather than return home. Luma said their overstaying was causing friction with local communities. Released on 11 July, the assessment, conducted in conjunction with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, found that the 11 percent shortfall in wheat production and 24 percent drop in rice would be covered by last year’s cereal crop. The irrigated spring wheat and cereal crops of the Punjab would also help compensate for low production in rain-fed areas elsewhere. Although government interventions to mitigate the effects of the drought had so far been effective in averting large-scale human suffering, continued emergency support would be needed for some 350,000 drought-affected people, mainly tenant farmers and those who had lost livestock or orchards, Luma said. In an attempt to discourage further migration away from affected parts of Sindh, the provincial authorities were planning to provide 40 kg of wheat per family per month at half the market price. “This is definitely going to help, but it will not be sufficient to meet full needs,” said Luma, who estimated that 90 kg of wheat per month was required for a family of six. While emergency measures were crucial, Luma said long-term strategies were needed to encourage farmers to adopt more suitable cropping patterns in water-scarce regions. The return of normal monsoon rains had encouraged Baluch farmers to bring livestock back to traditional grazing areas in the hope that the drought was at an end. But with winter rains down by 63 percent compared to the long-term average, Luma warned that many affected areas would only see a respite towards the end of the year with the arrival of winter rains. “The issue is whether they should be trying to raise livestock in these areas at all, when the drought has killed off 60 percent of their herds. They need to start thinking about growing something else, because orchards and livestock are not sustainable. Perhaps they should look into vegetables in the short term,” she said.