Rice growers foresee huge losses as dryness takes over Badin

HYDERABAD: Two months ago, Muhammad Hanif, a farmer cultivated rice on his 30 acres land in Badin district, but he lost all the seedlings because of water scarcity. “I did not receive my water share in time to save my crop,” he shared his plight.

Hanif is not the only grower who lost his rice crop in the early stages. A large number of growers in the rice producing areas faced a similar ordeal in terms of water scarcity. Sensing the complex situation, some conscious growers avoided taking the risk to prepare a seedling nursery.

Badin was considered the richest among rice producing districts like Thatta, Dadu, Larkana, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Jacobabad, and Shikarpur. The situation has made growers uncertain about continuing agriculture practices, which they have been associated with for generations.

Each year, during the month of July, farmers in Badin district had plenty of water in canals, tributaries and watercourses, but this year the situation is the opposite. These empty water bodies seem to be also emptying the lives of the poor farmers residing and working in tail end areas, especially Badin, Thatta and Sujawal districts.

The farmers in Badin, depending solely on agriculture, have reportedly organised 40 sit-ins to protest against water shortage in the last nine months to seek the essential agricultural input. But all their protests seem to have been in vain.

The growers in coastal and tail-end areas, including Thatta, Sujawal, Umerkot and Mirpurkhas districts practice advanced cultivation. Normally rice producers cultivate in April to mid-June, because of favourable weather phenomenon. However, this year, they are late in rice cultivation due to water scarcity.

Haq Nawaz Rind, another grower and owner of 300 acres of land in Ghorabari taluka, Thatta district could not cultivate two major seasonal crops cotton and rice as he did not receive water share from the distributaries.

In Thatta district three talukas are known rice producing areas, including Sakro, Ghorabari and Thatta itself, which spare around 150,000 acre land for this major food crop. Out of which hardly 50 percent land has come under rice crop cultivation this year, but growers are now unsure about saving their crops due to acute water shortage.

Sindh Chamber of Agriculture President Qabool Muhammad Khatian said, “Sindh may lose three districts, including Badin, Thatta and Tando Muhammad Khan, which are facing drought-like situation.

There is no water in these districts for the last six months, leaving growers and common people to live an uncertain life without water and food.” He said Badin was the most affected district, which has not received water since 11 months. “There is a drought-like situation now, despite being a rich district in the past with fertile lands and agriculture productivity.”

About rice, Khatian said only 15 days were left to end rice planting. He asked how farmers could afford to prepare nurseries to plant seedlings. “It is the sign of destruction of agriculture in the province.”

On top, no rainfall has been reported in the province so it was futile to expect crops to survive. He accused lower-grade irrigation department officials of being involved in mismanagement and corruption in water distribution system, which has destroyed the agriculture economy.

He quoted that there was one engineer, who has designed a comprehensive plan at Nara canal, which was flowing at full capacity and providing water to all beneficiaries equally. While at all other canals, mismanagement was depriving growers of their water share.

As a result, growers were facing destruction and displacement. It shows the water shortage was artificial and those involved in this management should be punished accordingly to save the economy of the province.

Sindh Grower Alliance (SGA) President Nawab Zubair Talpur also called it mismanagement and corruption in the water distribution system. “There is no check and balance to assure equal distribution of water to save the agro economy,” he said.

“I have cultivated cotton, chilli and prepared the rice nursery, but due to water unavailability neither could I save the standing crops nor could I cultivate the next immediate crop,” he said while talking to The News.

He revealed that the standing crops of cotton and chilli were getting attacked by different viruses and diseases. “It is because there is no certified seed and authentic agriculture input available in the local market. We get impure seed and input, for which we pay a huge price, including loss of valuable crops,” he said while lamenting government negligence in this regard.

Agriculture Extension Larkana Deputy Director Ghulam Hussain Shaikh said they have set target of around 200,000 acres for rice cultivation, but this year he was not sure of achieving it because of water scarcity.

He claimed of there were efforts to regain indigenous varieties of rice which were replaced by a number of hybrid varieties. Shaikh said these original rice varieties were healthier and had a unique aroma and quality, but were disappearing due to changing priorities of growers.

Prof Ismail Kumbhar of Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam while talking about water status in tail-end areas said not only crops, now the people were compelled to migrate from their ancestral abodes to safer places in search of better livelihood.

He said three main canals starting from Kotri Barrage to irrigate 3.08 acres land in Badin, Thatta, Sujawal and Tando Muhammad Khan districts through tributaries now seemed to be shrinking.

On one hand there were suggestions to promote fish production in rice fields, while on the other hand rice crop itself was facing water shortage, he said. Prof Kumbhar observed that now the situation in terms of dryness and drought seemed common in arid zones as well as canal areas, because hundreds of farmers were unable to utilise their lands due to persistent water scarcity in their watercourses.

Citing a recent study conducted by Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, Prof Kumbhar said during the year 2018 farmers in Badin, Thatta and Sujawal districts either failed to cultivate crops on 60 percent of their lands or got low productivity due to water scarcity. These areas usually came under cultivation of major cotton and rice crops and farmers lived a prosperous life.

The growers also criticised rupee-dollar parity, which has created problems in getting seed, agriculture input and machinery which was bought at dollar rates while the end product was sold in rupees.

They demanded the government authorities to look at the agriculture sector sympathetically and avoid colossal losses in terms of destruction and displacement of rural people, who had no option but to migrate.