LAHORE: So far, 158,555 acres have come under varying degrees of flood as water flows have spread across the river beds (commonly known as katcha area) in the province, claimed officials of the Punjab Agriculture Department here on Saturday.
According to the details, Rahim Yar Khan district has seen 13,356 acres submerging by water – out of them 8,378 acres belonged to sugarcane, 149 acres to cotton, 3,415 acres to Moong and 1,362 acres to fodder and other crops.
Similarly, Muzaffargarh district has seen 31,605 acres going under water, out of which cotton was sown on 1,500 acres, sugarcane on 1,535 acres, rice on 2,116 acres, Moong on 4,000 acres and fodders and other smaller crops on 14,800 acres.
Agriculture dept says DG Khan is least affected, Layyah the most hit district Rajanpur area suffered losses on 25,839 acres. Moong, being prime crop in the areas, saw 21,893 acres being flooded, cotton 3,249 acres, sugarcane only 70 acres.
The D. G. Khan area has so far been least affected with only 215 acres receiving flood water. Layyah district has so far been the most hit with 87,540 acres coming under various levels of water. In the area, sugarcane got a hit on 35,550 acres, cotton on 8,250 acres, Moong 7,660 acres, rice 2,390 acres, vegetables 4,560 acres, fodder on 19,135 acres, orchards on 2,590 acres and others 3,610 acres.
Total crops inundated on 158,555 acres and the crop-wise estimates are: sugarcane 45,533 acres, Moong 37,933 acres, fodder 35,299 acres, cotton 13,248 acres, vegetables 4,560 acres and orchards 2,590.
According to the government officials, the floodwater has already started receding in most of these areas and there should be no further damage, unless weather takes some unexpected turn. The current monsoon current should be over in the next few days and further help clear standing water.
“In total, 283 acres in Katcha areas have been inundated. Out of them, 25 fall in Rahim Yar Khan district, 102 in Muzaffargarh, 70 in Rajanpur area, 82 in Layyah district and four in D. G. Khan district,” says an official of the department.
“The actual crop loss should not be more than 25 to 50 per cent even in worst case scenarios – if a particular field remains under water for more than 72 hours,” he says.
A near-perfect assessment could only be made at least one week after receding of water. If water’s depth and duration is one factor affecting the crops, the differing crop sensitivity is another. Sugarcane might not get hurt as much as Moong. The cotton crop might not suffer as much directly from flooding as it would from the following hot and humid conditions that flood water and persistent rains leave behind. The damage, or its control, would largely depend on management of the crop in those conditions. So, the list of variables is too long to give planners any degree of confidence to calculate impact on crops now. Luckily, there has been no breach except for Jhakar Imam in DG Khan district, and it too was of farmers’ bund, which they erect within the river bed to save their crops within the Katcha area, he says.