• Floods have destroyed 3 main crops of rice, sugarcane and sesame across Punjab province

Aamir Latif 

KARACHI, Sindh, Pakistan

The ongoing torrential rains and surging floods have inundated large swaths of farmlands and destroyed ready-to-reap crops across Pakistan, triggering fears of a food crisis and inflation, the UN and growers warned on Monday.

The raging floods struck the northeastern Punjab, the country’s largest province and food basket, last week, submerging hundreds of villages, schools and health centers, washing away livestock and destroying crops, aside from killing around 50 people and triggering evacuations.

The surging floods have so far affected more than 2 million people, in addition to evacuation of more than 700,000 people, according to official statistics.

The water is flowing further south to fall into the mighty Indus River and is feared to wreak havoc on southern Sindh province in coming days.

“This isn’t normal—yet it’s becoming the new normal. Monsoons, driven by climate change, now bring fear and devastation to communities across Pakistan,” Mo Yahya, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator, said in a post on US social media company X, after visiting the flood-hit areas.

“Flooded rice fields stretch as far as the eye can see. Farmers now face months without crops or income until the next planting season,” he said, while posting a video of flooded farmlands in Hafizabad district.

“This is only the beginning — more intense rains are expected in the coming weeks. As the water flows further south, it will threaten more families with displacement and destruction,” Yahya added.

“This is not just another natural disaster; this is #ClimateChange.”

Endorsing the warning, Waqar Ahmad, the secretary general of Kisan Board of Pakistan, a nationwide farmers body, said that the catastrophic floods have destroyed the three main crops of rice, sugarcane and sesame (oil-rich seeds) across Punjab.

“Rice crop has particularly taken a toll as the floods have hit the major rice-producing districts,” Rizvi told Anadolu.

According to him, 70% of the standing rice crop has been destroyed by the latest floods.

He cautioned that if neighboring India releases another deluge of floodwaters towards Pakistan, the remaining amounts of the standing crops will be badly affected.

Waheed Ahmad, the head of Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exports Association, fears that the latest floods would likely to cause food inflation as massive deluges have destroyed huge amounts of crops, and vegetables across Punjab and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

He urged the government to lift the levy on vegetable and fruit imports from neighboring Afghanistan and Iran to cope with the looming food shortages.

Read: Pakistan floods: Proactive adaptation strategies urged

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Aamir Latif is a senior journalist based in Karachi, Sindh. He represents Anadolu, a Turkish news agency.

Courtesy: Anadolu Agency (Posted on 01.09.2025)

The post Pakistan floods spark looming food crisis first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Food security issues have emerged as a global issue. After the war between Russia and Ukraine, food shortage could cause famine-like situation in some developing countries. Undoubtedly, food security is based on main three pillars, food availability, and sustainable economic access of food, effective utilization and absorption.

Food availability, first pillar of food security, concerns sufficient quantity of food available to all the individuals within a country on sustainable basis. As the population increases, country should use modern technology in order to increase productivity, especially in areas such as Sindh, South Punjab that are affected by global warming and natural disaster such as floods. After the flood the number of production of wheat and rice dramatically change.

Second pillar of food security, sustainable economy access for food. Food access possible only when all the citizen have enough resources to acquire food. If the people don’t have desirable income they will not access food even if food availability is in abundance. According to Asian Development Bank (ADB) 30% hike in food prices can push 10.4 million people to poverty in Pakistan. Resultantly, people suffering even for basic necessities. Famines can occur without any decline of food availability. Such that famine of Bangladesh in 1974 despite peak food availability.

The third pillar of food security is “effective food utilization” with sufficient diet and energy. It requires people have accessible knowledge about nutrition, diet along with access of clean water and food. The deficiency of nutrition in Thar, Sindh is an example of the dire consequences of lacking effective food utilization. Hundreds of children died due to nutrition deficiency. Government has not provide them enough water and food. In every year State Bank of Pakistan issued report for food security. Succinctly speaking reports’ results going to worse condition. Government should take step to secure food in order to alleviating poverty.

Saffeer Hussain

Hailing from Larkana, Sindh

Student of Business Administration NUML University Islamabad.

The post Food Security Issues of Pakistan first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Islamabad

A high-powered policy dialogue titled “Climate-Smart Agriculture and Food Security: Challenges & Way Forward for Pakistan” was organized by Syngenta Pakistan and Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services (PIPS) on Tuesday 7th March, 2023 in Islamabad.

With the objectives of highlighting the key challenges facing the food security of the country and identifying viable solutions to mitigate these challenges in the context of climate change, the session brought together key stakeholders from public, private, development and academic sectors including members of the parliament, and representatives from UN FAO, ADB, PMAS Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi and Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad who stressed the need for a collective action plan to deal with the rising food insecurity and to promote climate smart and regenerative agriculture in the country to counter the impacts of climate change.

Speaker National Assembly, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, speaking as the Chief Guest stated that “Pakistan has become highly vulnerable to climate change, and not because of our own doing, which is manifested in the form of recent super floods which had wreaked havoc on our agriculture. It is essential that we protect our agriculture against climatic shifts and utilize sustainable practices to improve our climate resilience. We are at the turning point of our history. It is through persistence and resilience that we will overcome all the changes that our nation is currently facing.”

Senator Seemi Ezdi, Chairperson Senate’s Standing Committee on Climate Change, was of the view that “Women in Agriculture have an important role to play in ensuring the food security of the country. Most of the labor force in the agriculture sector constitutes of women workers. While it gives us a food for thought to upskill the female labor force in agriculture, it also is an indication of promoting more female farmers who are equipped with the latest technologies for dealing with climate change and productivity issues.

Dr. Shahida Rehmani MNA appreciated the timely initiative by the Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services and Syngenta Pakistan and she expressed the hope that: Certainly, the report of the Roundtable will help committees in Parliament to advocate and oversee national policy-making on climate smart agriculture.

The participants emphasized the need for coordinated efforts to deal with the overlapping crises of climate-change, food-insecurity, water-scarcity and rising temperatures in the country. They appreciated the policy dialogue which not only contributed as a point of reference for valuable discourse on climate-action, but also helped in improving their understanding around the concepts of ‘climate-smart agriculture’, the nexus between climate-change, food-security and sustainable-agriculture. (PR)

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Karachi

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that science and technology can be effectively used to solve problems of poverty, food insecurity, and climate change, in the Muslim world.

This he said while speaking at the Inaugural Ceremony of ‘The 24th Scientific Conference of Islamic World Academy of Sciences On ‘Challenges to Promote Science & Technology for Socio-Economic Development in OIC Countries’ organized by the University of Karachi on Tuesday.

The conference was attended by the President of The World Academy of Sciences Prof. Dr. Adnan Badran, Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, Coordinator General COMSTECH Prof. Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Choudhry, Vice Chancellor Karachi University & Patron-in-Chief of International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) Prof. Dr. Khalid Mahmood Iraqi, Chairman Hussein Ebrahim Jamal Foundation Aziz Latif Jamal, Chairperson Dr. Panjwani Memorial Trust Ms. Nadira Panjwani and Foreign and Local Delegates.

Shah said, “It is only through the applications of science and technology that we can handle the enduring challenges of poverty, climate change, food insecurity, and increasing disease burdens, that world faces today.”

He said ‘we needed to not only solve many local issues, but also partner with other nations in handling global challenges.’

CM said that his government has placed the ICCBS at the center of its science and technology-based initiatives. “Various departments of my government are working closely with the ICCBS management to establish research centers, upgrade the existing laboratory infrastructure of the province, as well to conduct some of the enduring issues in health and agriculture that the province is facing today,” he said and added the establishment of the Sindh Serology and DNA Forensic lab, the upgrading of the Chemico-bacterial lab in Karachi, and the establishment of the Traditional Medicine Research Center were the institutions where ICCBS was supporting the provincial government.

Shah said that he was delighted to know that his idea of the establishment of a seamless learning platform for the universities has been implemented as the SIREN (Sindh Innovation, Research, and Education Network) by the ICCBS which connects leading universities of Sindh.

“My government has also decided to declare five centers of the ICCBS as Sindh Health Care Research facilities in fields such as regenerative medicine, disease genomics, and pharmaceutical research,” he said.

Talking to the media the CM said that his government has enhanced the annual grant of the public sector universities by three times. “But the public-private partnership initiative of his government has produced the best results in education and health sectors,” he said.

To a question, Shah said that the NICVD was performing well. “Yes, there are some issues of foreign exchange, therefore some equipment/gadgets might have not been procured but those issues would be resolved,” he said.

To another question, the CM said that the director of finance would be appointed in all government universities and institutions for which the method was being evolved. (PR)

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Geneva

A series of interconnected crises are expected to have a huge impact on children in 2023. A report from the UN children’s agency (UNICEF), released on Tuesday, details the trends that will shape their lives over the next 12 months.

The war in Ukraine, has resulted in high food and energy prices, global hunger, and inflation – just one example of the way that crises, affecting millions around the world, including children, affect each other.

The report, “Prospects for Children in 2023: A Global Outlook”, also looks at a range of other significant areas, from the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to the fragmentation of the internet, and the climate emergency. Here are eight insights contained within the study.

1) The pandemic casts a long shadow, but health breakthroughs offer hope

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for strong global health security and many countries remain at risk. Unfortunately, it is children who are so often the most vulnerable – if not to the virus itself, then to its many impacts.

At the same time, the pandemic has spurred remarkable progress in vaccine development and reforms in global health systems and, in 2023, it is essential the world continues to strengthen health architecture around the world.

2) Efforts at taming inflation have unintended impact on child poverty

Soaring inflation has been the economic story of the year and, unsurprisingly, its impacts can weigh heavily on families and children. Attempts to tame price rises can also have harsh consequences, like slowing economic growth and reducing job opportunities – particularly for young people.

Government action to expand and protect social benefits, cushion the most vulnerable from the impacts of economic austerity.

3) Food and nutrition insecurity is set to continue

Food insecurity has been rising as a result of extreme weather events, bottlenecks in key supply chains, and conflicts like the war in Ukraine.

As prices go up, families across the world find it tougher to feed their children – and that’s likely to continue in 2023.

Making the world’s food systems more resilient, is one way to mitigate this issue.

4) Energy crises cause immediate harm, but a focus on sustainability means a greener future

For billions of people, rising energy prices are sharply increasing the cost of living, and the outlook for 2023 is uncertain.

That outlook has spurred an even greater focus on transitioning to clean and sustainable energy sources, with the potential to create new jobs for young people.

However, many of them don’t feel prepared for these new careers, so preparing young job seekers with training opportunities, needs to be a critical part of any green energy agenda.

5) Focus on climate finance, debt relief for developing countries

Developing countries face multiple challenges as they attempt to recover from the pandemic, address the climate crisis, and deal with economic stress, but financial support for these countries is not increasing to meet their escalating needs.

Without reforms to unlock additional development finance, resources will be spread increasingly thin and urgent needs will be left unmet – and that’s bad news for children.

6) Democracy under threat, social movements push back

Democracy has been increasingly imperiled in recent years, and it will continue to be challenged in 2023. Political instability can lead to positive social change, but it can also leave the door open for authoritarian leaders.

In 2023, it is likely that young people will play an even more prominent role in social movements, whether in climate action, mental health, education, or gender equality. Their advocacy will be powerful and will contribute to momentum for change.

7) Increased antagonism complicates efforts to help children

In an atmosphere of increasing factionalism, multilateralism becomes more difficult: the number of children in need is currently at its highest level since World War Two, and an antagonistic world is unlikely to lead to positive outcomes for children.

Improved international cooperation is needed for multilateral organizations to be able to address challenges facing children; there are still opportunities to set tensions aside, find common ground and prioritize the well-being of children.

8) The internet becomes less open, and more fragmented

Technological, commercial and political factors, are fragmenting the web into isolated islands of connectivity and governance.

Children are particularly affected since they rely heavily on the internet for their education and social interactions. In 2023, we are likely to see efforts to promote a free, inclusive, and secure web, and all opportunities to create a digital future that benefits children must be seized.

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Courtesy: UN News (Posted on Jan 31, 2023)

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Karachi

Sindh Cabinet, which met here Friday with Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in the chair, approved the allocation of reserved seats in the local councils. Under the new arrangements seats will be reserved for six categories including the transgender people.

The other categories include the youth, peasants, labor, women and disabled persons.

The cabinet also discussed the issue of sugarcane price. It was informed that the sugarcane price in Sindh has been fixed at Rs.302 per 40kg which is Rs.300 per kg in Punjab. The Sindh government officials confirmed that sugarcane crushing has started in the province from Nov 20, 2022.

Discussing the Food Security Plan, the cabinet approved a proposal of handing over the project to PPHI. The cabinet was told that Sindh Health Department had launched a Food Emergency program under the Accelerated Action Plan in 2016 and had achieved World Bank’s targets. The project has a budget of Rs.2.9 billion for the fiscal year 2022-2023.

The Home Department informed the cabinet that the sentence of nine prisoners, convicted by the anti-terrorism courts, has been commuted from six to 22 months on the basis of having passed Adeeb Sindhi and Urdu examinations in the prison. The prisoners are Abdul Jabbar, Muhammad Ali, Syed Aamir Hussain, Khalid Abbas, Syed Shahzad, Ali Raza, Syed Nayar Raza and Khalid Aziz.

It was further informed that a German company had paid one million dollar as compensation to the heirs of the 200 workers who lost lives in Baldia Factory fire in 2012. Sindh Employees Social Security Institution is also paying them monthly pension.

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Tando Jam

Vice Chancellor of Sindh Agricultural University Dr. Fateh Marri has said that the agriculture of Sindh has reached a point that now we have to standardize the production of Agriculture.

“The innovation in agriculture is inevitable as the food security is under threat due to climate change and increasing population,” he said while speaking at the inauguration ceremony of 3-day training workshop on Capacity Development under “Institutional Strengthening of Project Coordination &Monitoring Unit (PCMU) for Water -relates policies & Practices focusing Sindh Water & Agriculture Transformation (SWAT) Project, hosted by Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, on Monday.

Dr. Marri said that Agriculture production per acre of Sindh Province is more than that of Punjab, but according to international standards, this production is not satisfactory. “The experts have to work on new commodities for the 100-day crop of wheat and cotton.”

He said considering the scarce resources of water and agricultural land area, experts have to advance their research for new varieties of crops. “Less water-consuming crops and less expensive farming methods have to be adopted”, he said and added that it is a matter of concern that World Food and Agriculture has revealed that 17 percent of our production is wasted.

Dr. Muhammad Ismail Kumbhar, Director, University Advancement and Financial Assistance said that all the experts related to agriculture, irrigation, extension, and economic institutions are unanimous that for the agricultural development of Sindh and the economic development of the people, high-yielding commodities and agricultural innovation should be promoted,

Training organizer Dr. Jam Ghulam Murtaza Sahito said that this is the second of four trainings organized by Sindh Agriculture University in collaboration with PCMU, P&D Department of Sindh Government. He said that in this training workshop there will be 9 interactive technical sessions for University experts, Agriculture, Irrigation, P&D and SIDA officials, and seven different resource persons with vast experience will be there to impart training.

On this occasion Ali Nawaz Channa, Director Technical Agriculture Extension, Bakht Ali Solangi, Regional Director Agriculture Marketing, Tariq Ali Dehraj Deputy Director Technical Farm water Management, Parvez Ahmed Banbhan Assistant Manager Transition SIDA, Ambar Sanam Laghari, Assistant Director SIDA and various participants from the different departments, who took part in the training, were present. (PR)

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 Gulsher Panhwer

Speakers at ‘Climate Change and Food Security Conference ‘ held Tuesday in Karachi emphasized the need to promote local adaption plan and practices that can support sustainable livelihood of poor communities, and can maintain fragile ecosystem of arid zones in Sindh.

Dr. Kamran Soomro, the Borlaug fellow on irrigation and water management at Colorado State University, USA, and presently working with Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) as senior water expert shared the ‘Adaptation Plan of Action’ which PARC and TRDP are implementing in Umerkot. Plan is imparting knowledge to small farmer, rural communities and relevant government departments on climate smart agriculture along with updated seasonal calendars and advisory services on use of environment friendly technology.

Dr. Omer Mukhtar Tarar, the principal scientific officer and head of food technology and nutrition section at Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Laboratories Complex, Karachi shared finding of a research done on the nutritional value of indigenous food of Tharparkar. He emphasized that many local food available in Tharparkar show high value of minerals, vitamins, proteins and carbohydrates and can be used as an important input for addressing the issue of malnutrition.

Dr. Junaid Alam Memon, Professor of Development Studies and Director Center for Business and Economic Research at IBA Karachi, who remained a John Dillon Fellow of the Austrian Center for International Research (ACIAR) and Scholar at Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington, USA, presented findings of evaluation of climate smart agriculture project implemented by Thardeep Rural Development Program (TRDP) in Umerkot. With support of empirical analysis he explained that as a result of project activities the food security in communities served with interventions is increased significantly. He put a note caution while practicing the interventions that extract and use water recklessly particularly of dug wells including experiments on growing cash crops on saline water.

Mohammed Saleem Jalbani, Senior Chief Environment and Climate Change, Planning and Development Department, Govt of Sindh shared the initiatives that government is undertaking to promote sustainable land use management in Sindh. He referred to a case study of UNDP supported project that Government of Sindh implemented in Tharparkar and Umerkot on sustainable land use and which was categorized as one of the most effective UNDP project on the sustainable land use.

Mr. Noor Muhammad Baloch Director General, Agriculture Research Sindh Tandojam shared the research initiatives that the government has so far taken to promote climate friendly agriculture and horticulture in Sindh.

Sarwan Baloch, Sindh Coordinator of WWH shared the approach and support given by WHH to promote climate smart agriculture and results of project that WHH supported TRDP to implement.

Allah Nawaz Samo CEO TRDP emphasized to bridge inequality and change attitude towards an environment friendly development. He shared some examples where exploitation of ground water for getting high productivity in fragile arid zones has resulted in ‘patches of poverty ‘ and ‘patches of plenty’.

Sabiha Shah Vice Chairperson TRDP welcomed the participants and thanked them for supporting TRDP in serving poor communities in the most remote and deprived areas of Sindh.

Hakeema a community representative from Umerkot shared community actions taken under the project that have reduced the negative impact of climate change, while taking advantage of potential new opportunities. She highlighted the role trained community resource persons frequently play along with district administration to cope with disasters such as drought and flood.

Aisha Jamshaid, country director, Welthungerhilfe concluded the conference on vote of thanks. Referring to large participation from a range of stakeholders including academia, representatives of public and private sector, small traders, media, and civil society organizations, she hoped that conference would contribute to reinforce the collective action to promote capacity and resilience of all stakeholders in the climate change management.  She appreciated TRDP and WHH team for organizing such a wonderful event.

Various presentations were made at the conference. In a presentation scientific results of nutritional analysis of Flora and Fauna for exploring indigenous solutions to hunger and malnutrition in district Tharparkar were elaborated. The research includes nutritional values/composition of 45 Flora and Fauna (Vegetables, cereals, beans and milk).

Furthermore, Mid-term Evaluation results of Climate Smart Agriculture project of Umerkot were also discussed in a detailed presentation which includes two major components: Progress impact on Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning (MAHFP) and Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS), how project interventions are helping households to add at least one extra food to their food consumption basket, the project achievements are on track and impressive.

The conference recommended that as saline water is not being used by livestock so agriculture on it can be a resourceful idea for households, and then its replication. This will help revival and use of inundated saline water wells.

The community representatives shared experiences of effectiveness of Local Adaption Plan, Agriculture and livestock management after experiencing effects of climate change. The speakers elaborated historic background and perspective of arable and barren/Arid-zone lands adding that cash crops consume more water and leave less water for substance crops produce by small farmers in other areas where riverine water not available in sufficiently. Appropriate use of conventional and old wisdom is more efficient rather than relying on scientific data, they said.

Award was presented to Haji Mohammed Kumbahar for his contribution in raising awareness about climate change through photography in Thar and Umerkot.

Those who attended the conference include Professor Dr. Muhammad Ismail Memon, Sindh Agriculture University, Tando Jam, Zulfquar Halepoto, writer and social activist, Aijaz Khuwaja, writer and senior  development professional, Ashfaque Soomro, CEO, RDF, Atlaf Nizamani, CEO SAWFCO, Shahid Ali, CEO, FRDP, Ms. Rahima Panhwar, Member SRSO, BoD, TRDP board members, Brigadier (R) Allah Bux Rang, Haji Nabi Bux Baloch, Dr. Rubi Dharmdas, Kamala Devi, Meva Ram Saqi, Muhammad Ramzan Junejo, Hameeda Masoud and community members from Umerkot.

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Gulsher Panhwer is a freelance writer mostly touching the environmental, cultural and such other issues. He can be reached at gulsherp@yahoo.com

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