Due to recent heavy rainfall in lower Sindh major crops like cotton, chilli, onion, potatoes and paddy are destroyed.
A survey to determine losses is being conducted by the revenue department in Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Sanghar, Badin and Sujawal districts that are all left bank areas in Sindh.
These districts received an unusual amount of rainfall, chiefly in August. The rainwater is still standing in fields and farmers are struggling to dispose of the water to different saline water drains. Losses can be assessed after either the fields are dewatered or the rainwater recedes as crops remain submerged.
Accumulated water is bound to affect the farmers’ produce where lands are located in low-lying areas.
Cotton and chilli crops are vulnerable to lodging in these conditions. Insofar as the cotton crop is concerned, farmers had luckily made a couple of picking before it rained. More pickings were to follow when it rained heavily.
The left-bank districts are known for cotton and rice, vegetable production and large-scale orchards. Hybrid variety of chilli is largely grown in Mirpurkhas, Umerkot and Badin districts as farmers have shown a tendency to replace cotton with chilli due to the germination problem with cottonseed.