SWABI: Farmers and their leaders said on Sunday that recent heavy rains and subsequent floods had destroyed 60 per cent of standing crops in Swabi.

Speaking at a meeting held here, they said the natural calamity had caused widespread devastation, incurring huge losses on farmers.

On the occasion, Jabeen Qamar, a local agriculture expert, said the floods caused by heavy monsoon rains destroyed the livelihood sources of farmers as their crops and cattle were washed away.

He said lumpy skin disease had already brought misery to the farmers, killing their animals in large numbers.

Liaqat Yousafzai, central president of Tobacco Growers Association Pakistan, said: “The devastation caused to crops in the recent floods is immense. Every grower suffered heavy losses as their sources of livelihood have been destroyed, which would take time to be restored.”

The farmers’ representatives demanded that a damage-assessment survey should be launched without delay to extend the financial help to the affected farmers.

Meanwhile, the director agriculture extension, Swabi, has written a letter to the provincial government, informing it that the floods had inundated more than 2,500 acres of cultivable land across the district as almost all the tehsils have been battered by rains and floods.

He demanded that all the departments concerned needed to be taken on board to fight this natural disaster in a better way.

The letter mentioned that the main office of the district director agriculture extension, Swabi, including the storage rooms, had also been submerged by floodwater.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2022