Water scarcity likely to bite rice output in Sindh

KARACHI: Rice output in Sindh is feared to decline this year as farmers reduced the crop sowing area due to water shortage, agriculture experts said on Saturday.

Muhammad Ismail Kumbhar, professor at Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam said there was late sowing in the province due to water shortage and around 30 to 40 percent acreage has been left out of the paddy sowing.

“Yield will also remain low,” Kumbhar said.

Pakistan produces around 6.5 million to seven million tons of rice, including Basmati every year; of which, around four million tons are produced in Sindh that mostly grows non-basmati varieties, including IRRI and some hybrid varieties. Major portion of non-basmati comes from Sindh.

Usually, paddy seedling starts in June and July, which was delayed by one to two months this time around. Some growers started sowing in early August.

“Due to late sowing, crop has also become vulnerable to pest attack under cloudy season,” Kumbhar said.

He said it is alarming that farmers and land workers are migrating to big cities, as major crops of Kharif (summer), including cotton, are badly affected.

He added that fodder prices also increased this season.

Badin, Sujawal and Thatta districts usually grow paddy in lower Sindh, while Dadu, Larkana, Shikarpur, Qamber-Shahdadkot and Shikarpur are famous for paddy in upper parts of the province.

“These all areas remained vulnerable to water shortage,” Kumbhar said. “Some growers at the head of the canals in the banned areas were also involved in paddy sowing, which was dangerous, and affected the crop in tail-end areas.” Several growers have sown hybrid seeds this year, which need proper water and weather, “which was not available”.

Mehmood Nawaz Shah, secretary general of Sindh Abadgar Board, agreed that sowing in several areas did not come under cultivation because of water scarcity.

“This is first time in Kharif that severe water shortage has been noted,” Shah said. “In some areas, sowing starts in May while water reached to lands in August.”

He said the loss was not uniform for all the growers.

“Some might have not sown crop on 80 percent of their lands while some might have completed sowing,” he added. “Sowing at the heads of canals might have been better along with sowing on perennial canals.”

Shah the damage was done to the crop in any case, as harvesting season started.

Rafique Suleman, senior vice chairman Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan, said crop size has been low by this time. “Usually, rice arrivals remained high at this period, but this time it is too slow,” he said.

Suleman hoped that rice crop would reach at the previous year’s level of around 6.5 million tons to seven million tons in the country.

He said Sindh government banned paddy sowing in some areas of the province, which affected production of around 0.3 million tons. “This is an agriculture country and any ban on rice growing will affect the economy,” he added.