LAHORE: In the heart of Punjab, where once green fields and golden crops stood, now stretches an endless sea of mud and silence. Farmers who spent their lives nurturing the land now look over acres of devastation, their faces mirroring the destruction around them.
“I’ve lost everything again”, says Mumtaz Hussain, a farmer from Jhang district, his voice trembling. “Four feet of sand now covers my land. Just removing it would cost lakhs”.
Hussain’s land was also affected during the 2014 floods. Back then, the restoration cost was about Rs300,000 per acre. He owns ten acres of farmland, and had planted sugarcane, sesame and rice to provide for his family and workers, but the floods swallowed everything.
“The government is giving Rs20,000 per acre that doesn’t even cover the cost of removing the sand from one acre”. His despair echoes across Punjab.
According to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Punjab, the flood affected 27 districts, submerging more than 3,900 villages (Mouzas), damaging over 1.44 million acres of crops and affecting 4.7 million people. The survey of two tehsils, Rojhan and Sadiqabad, is yet to be completed. The provincial government has allocated Rs100 billion under the Punjab Chief Minister Flood Rehabilitation Program.
Contributing nearly 24 per cent of the country’s GDP and employing almost half of its labour force, agriculture is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy. On the ground, farmers are desperate. Mian Zafar Arain, a farmer from Kot Islam Nikasu village in Kabirwala tehsil, told us that the floods have wiped out everything. His 40 acres of land were flooded. Twenty-five acres grew rice, the remaining was used for fish farming. “The government’s Rs20,000 per acre compensation doesn’t even cover the cost of fertilizer for a single cro”, he added.
The economic toll of the 2025 floods is staggering. A report by Karachi-based research firm Arif Habib Limited, published in September, estimated total losses to be Rs409 billion ($1.4 billion) -- equivalent to about 0.33 per cent of GDP. Agriculture alone accounted for Rs302 billion ($1 billion) of that damage.
Former finance minister and economist Dr Salman Shah urged the government to redirect funds toward recovery and relief rather than new development projects. “We must rebuild homes and farmlands, help farmers re-cultivate, and provide immediate support for the upcoming wheat crop”.
General Secretary of the Kisan Rabta Committee Farooq Tariq called the current floods “the most extraordinary in Punjab’s history. The results are disastrous: cotton, sugarcane, and wheat production are all under severe threat”.
Tariq also criticised the government’s approach to compensation, calling it “symbolic and inadequate”. He demanded stronger state intervention, not just cash payments but real cost relief: cheaper fertilisers, seeds and fuel. “Farmers don’t want subsidies; they want fair input costs”, he added.
Punjab Minister for Agriculture Syed Muhammad Ashiq Hussain Shah Kirmani, however, ensured that “Punjab remains surplus in major crops. There’s stress on oilseeds and pulses, but we’re not facing a food security crisis yet”.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has already issued a stark warning that the country may experience 22 per cent above-normal rainfall in 2026, resulting in more floods.
For climate expert Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, this is not just a forecast but a final warning. “We failed to prepare, again. Instead of focusing only on the destruction, Pakistan must learn the lessons”, he said.
According to Sheikh, the first step is creating emergency reserves -- essential supplies like wheat, seeds, and sugar -- to last at least one year at local, provincial and national levels. “When floods block supply routes, everything collapses -- from food to fuel to medicine. Modern countries maintain reserves. We must do the same”, he insisted.
Despite the despair, the government insists that recovery is underway. Kirmani said Punjab is prioritising climate-smart agriculture -- developing drought- and heat-tolerant crop varieties, promoting mechanisation and introducing short-duration crops like sesame, mung beans and Raya.
He shared that over Rs80 billion is being invested annually in development projects to help small farmers and promote sustainable agriculture. “We are using ICT tools, PAK MET reports, and partnerships with international firms to expand technology usage in farming”.
But for those standing knee-deep in floodwater, such plans sound distant. The pain is immediate.
Mumtaz Hussain looks at his waterlogged field and sighs, “They talk about smart farming and new seeds. But how can I farm when I don’t even have land to stand on?”
The farmers and the experts all agree on one thing: Pakistan can no longer afford to treat floods as temporary disasters. They are now a permanent reality.
And until the country rebuilds its systems, invests in resilience, and learns to live with its changing climate, the haunting words of farmers like Mumtaz will echo year after year: “We lost everything again’.