Last year’s monsoon rains deprived many in Sindh of their lives, houses and livelihoods, but now the government’s unfair distribution of agriculture inputs among farmers in various districts is making matters worse, revealed a report issued on Monday.
The Civil Society Flood Situation Report (CSFSR) was prepared and released by the People’s Accountability Commission on Floods (PACF), a network of volunteers working for the flood survivors.
According to the report, the package for Rabi assistance to the flood survivors includes 50-kg of wheat seeds, 50-kg fertiliser per acre and 600 metric tonnes of sunflower seeds.
“The Agriculture Department has distributed 55,000 metric tonnes of wheat seeds in 17 districts in accordance with the government’s criterion that a beneficiary must be a landholder of 25 acres or less,” the PACF stated in the report quoting the data of the Agriculture Department:
However, the distribution of fertiliser has partially taken place in 15 affected districts only and sunflower seeds would be distributed in January, creating problems for the farmers.
The flood affected communities say that they have been denied of their due right because they have no acquaintance with the influential lots in the area. “The gravity of injustice in the distribution can be gauged from the fact that even landlords’ animals have been seen eating the seeds while we [the poor farmers] remain in dire need of them,” says one of them.
The wheat seeds were not distributed on equality basis as they are being sold in markets; the report quoted a farmer as saying.
According to details, over 30 percent land is still not cultivable as most of it is largely inundated by saline water, where as the other 30 percent of land, which is ready to mingle with seeds, is lying barren for want of them.
Quoting some independent experts as saying, it is stated in the report, “The imaginary assessment of inundation situation is not reliable due to technological constraints, recession trends, submerged irrigation system and artificial resistance by influential to natural drainages.”
