The Floods have destroyed the agricultural infrastructure in Swat valley
Labour releif committee of Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa visited the Matta tehsil in swat district last week. they found the 10 members labour relief committee there. Including four women and six male. Labour Relief Committee KPK and Swat were visited the effectives area. And meet with some effectives there.
In Swat district, agriculture is a major source of livelihood for about
180 000 farm families. Maize and rice are the major crops grown during the Kharif season. Fruit orchards of apple, peach and persimmon are abundant throughout the district. Summer vegetables, such as tomato, okra, cucurbits and fresh beans, are also grown in the area during the Kharif season. The landholdings are very small but fertile, and farmers have been able to attain good earning from the crops, especially fruit and vegetables recently. The marketing of apple and peach was at peak when severe floods hit the area. The continuous torrential rains followed by the flash floods during the last week of July devastated the livelihoods of farming communities. Further to the destruction of homes, infrastructure, communication networks and loss of human life, the floods have caused immense damage to crops, livestock, agriculture infrastructure, fisheries, forestry/agro forestry and other non-farm sources of income. The worst affected crops include rice, maize, peach and apple, which were at their full productivity stages. Rice, which was at the flowering stage, was most affected as it is usually grown on land near the river bank and streams in order to meet the crop’s water requirements (Sholgara). This land has completely been washed away by the floods. The depth of the rivers and streams were made by the floods very high. Now the remaining land is very high from the streams and rivers. And now the farmers are not able to irrigate their lands and crops. Mostly fruit gardens are going dried, because the floods bring the extra organic fertilizer from the jungles.
In Tehsil Matta area the situation of the farmers is very worse. Because the area of Matta tehsil is very fertile and have large number of Fruit gardens. Rice is also most popular crop of the area. Maize and Rice are cultivated in the mostly area. The farmers are selling their fruit about 1 billion rupees in every season. And they grow the maize and rice to feed their families.
In recent catastrophic floods the food stock of the families are also wash away which they stock in a season. Now they have no rice and maize in their damage homes.
The military already prohibited the maize crops because of security reasons. In those areas where there are not prohibited the flood washed away the crops. So in near future the inhabitant of the locality will have the short of food.
This the area which was the center of Taliban and now the military are commanding the area.
The area was effected by the taliban and military allredy and now the floods ruins the remaining human needs of the people.
Basic needs for the rehabilitation of the area long term and short term are:
AGRICULTURE
1- Fertilizers for the current maize and rice crop and other surviving crops.
2- Provision of vegetable seeds along with fertilizers; and provision of winter fodder seeds with fertilizers.
3- Provision of agriculture hand tools for crop management; and provision of wheat seed with fertilizers.
4- Provision of potato seed with fertilizers; and rehabilitation of damaged orchards and trees with provision of fertilizers and agricultural inputs for Kharif 2011.
5- Providing granaries (steel bins) for seed storage.
1- Clearing of flood debris, de-silting of partially damaged irrigation channels and
Water courses.
2- Rehabilitation and reconstruction of water mills.
3- Reconstruction and rehabilitation of water storage tanks and ponds.
4- Rehabilitation of damaged land terraces and construction of protection walls; construction of check
5- Rehabilitation of pasture tracks; and bio-physical flood mitigation measures.
Farooq Ahmad
Coordinator
Labour relief Compaign
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