KARACHI: Deadly monsoon floods are devastating Pakistan’s standing crops, with cotton the worst hit, a leading farmers’ representative warned on Saturday, raising concerns about a potential setback to the government’s ambitious 4.2 percent growth target this fiscal year.
Over 270 people, mostly children, have died and hundreds more have been injured since June 26 as intense monsoon rains battered Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Sindh, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
Around 1,200 houses, 12 bridges and 18 kilometers of road have also been damaged, along with more than 360 livestock killed.
“Cotton is the worst-hit crop, besides rice, maize and mango orchards,” Khalid Mehmood Khokhar, president of the Kissan Ittehad Council (KIC), told Arab News. “While most of the rice has already been sown, floods have disrupted the remaining cultivation.”
Agriculture contributes nearly 23 percent to Pakistan’s GDP and underpins key export sectors. Cotton, in particular, is a vital raw material for Pakistan’s textiles, which fetched $18 billion in exports last fiscal year. Pakistan also exported $3.4 billion worth of rice and $308 million in fruits, including mangoes.
