Alex Rodriguez Los Angeles Times

Floods In Southern Pakistan To Take Heavy Burden On Farmers

Pakistan province of Punjab, rice, sugarcane and mango farmers have seen their land under the water, which also consider how to treat the plants that support them.

August 13, 2010 | By Alex Rodriguez, the Los Angeles Times

Alex Rodriguez Los Angeles Times

Reports Muzaffargarh, Pakistan - Here in the southern Pakistani province of Punjab, the waters of the Indus and the rivers Chenab beasts devoured vast stretches of green rice paddies, fields of sugarcane and mango orchards, which usually feed of the nation.

The waters flooded the village of Basti Dopiwala, leaving farmers and their families stranded on a small plot of land to consider the survival of cells outside supporters. Along the banks of the Chenab, the river gently laps the branches of mango trees that stretch to the horizon and is a source of national pride.

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"Our mangoes are sweeter than any other person. The flavor is given by God," said Mohammed Irfan, who owns 100 acres of mango trees along the Chenab. "However, the floods have come from God, so there is nothing we can do about it. "

Floods claimed over 1,600 lives and destroyed infrastructure in the mountainous north-west is now flowed to the plains to the south and brought destruction to agriculture, the backbone of Pakistan economy.

Friday, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said that in Latvia the floods could have caused $ 1 billion in crop damage. The United Nations estimates that the flood has destroyed the 1400000 ha of plantations of the Punjab province of Pakistan, the area's agricultural base. In many places around the farming villages were wiped off the map.

These assessments paint a bleak picture for Pakistan, a vital U.S. ally in the fight against Islamic militancy and stabilize neighboring Afghanistan. The country already suffers from electricity shortages, attacks by militant groups and entrenched political differences. Pakistan boasts of its nuclear arsenal and feed an emerging middle class, but still largely an agrarian society which supports the work of millions of poor farmers.

Agriculture accounts for nearly one quarter of the country's GDP and nearly half the workforce in this sector. The Ministry of Finance has predicted that the disaster impacts in agriculture to keep the country from meeting its growth target of 4.5% of GDP this year. Without a steady growth, Pakistan will continue to struggle to support a growing population and remain vulnerable to the militants, who take advantage of poor youngsters.

In Muzaffargarh district, a fertile strip of land situated between the Indus and Chenab rivers, residents say it will take years to recover from the company. The head of district administration, Farasat Iqbal said nearly two thirds of agricultural land in the area was destroyed.

"Of the 3.5 million people who live here were 2.5 million are affected by these floods," he said.

Muzaffargarh-induced damage to the forests of mango extends deeper than the budget. Mangoes are the pride of Pakistan, where a coffee table was more heated than the debate on policy is a struggle for the advantages and disadvantages of 250 mangoes grown in the country. Hillary Rodham Clinton raved about his visit to Pakistan, Mangoes in July. "I personally guarantee Pakistani mangoes, which are delicious," he said.

Irfan, the producer of mango, last week was flooded forests stretching for miles, are struggling to take in the immensity of the ruin. A relatively wealthy man, Irfan, said his crop losses could reach $ 64 000 - a lot, but you could probably survive. The government must compensate, he says, but what worried him most was the long-term damage from flooding caused on his farm, which has been in the family for at least three generations.