Unprecedented floods destroy rice, maize, vegetables crops on millions of acre.

JAVAID UR RAHMAN

ISLAMABAD  –  As the devastating floods of 2025 continue to wreak havoc by taking lives, dislocating millions of people, and damaging the economy, the cruel floodwaters have submerged vast agricultural lands, threatening to worsen the food crisis with soaring prices and severely impacting exports, giving alarming signs for the country.

The agriculture country due to unprecedented floods bracing for heavy losses of cereal crops like rice, maize, vegetables which have started giving signs of a deeper national emergency.

The worst impacts of floods in agriculture have started emerging as the prices of vegetables have started soaring everyday and it can soon reach its peak owing to gap in demand and supply, climate change and agriculture experts revealed forewarning troubling trends for the country. The devastating floods badly damaged rice, maize, sugarcane, corn, cotton and vegetables of agricultural land in the country that would also cause a bad impact on the country’s exports in coming months.

The supply of cereal crops are plummeting and that can compound the crisis in the coming month, experts viewed presenting socio-economic challenges ahead. The floodwaters, currently, creating troubles in South areas (Southern Punjab and Sindh), as rescue and relief operations are underway in these areas.

 The floods, as per the initial estimates, have submerged over 1.4million acres of farmlands only in Punjab that have badly damaged the Kharif crops in the country.

Talking to this scribe, President Kissan Ittehad Council Khalid Khokar feared that the growers suffered a heavy loss due to floods 2025 and most of them would not have capacity to grow wheat in the coming months.

“In coming year, the impact on wheat would comparatively 20 percent,” said the agriculture experts, mentioning that the floodwaters damaged over 20 percent rice crops in the country. “It would definitely have a bad impact on rice export,” he informed.

About maize, he said that the country might face 15 percent loss only in this crop. “The maize, in the current year, has already grown 25 percent less as compared to the previous years,” he said.

About Cotton, he said the cotton import can exceed $3 billion this year due to devastating floods. “The cotton was already not sufficiently grown last year,” he said, mentioning that the cotton output may not exceed 4.5 million bales.

About vegetables (Perishable vegetables, Khokar said that all the vegetables of the season were badly damaged. “This perishable food item cannot sustain for a long time, soon the imbalance of food and supply would be felt in the market that would ultimately cause food inflation in the country.

When contacted, Federal Secretary, Ministry of National Food Security and Research, Amir Muhyuddin said that it was a national disaster that damaged the crops. “But, we have sufficient wheat in the county to deal with the situation,” he said 28.4 million ton including 5milion ton carry forward stock is available against the requirement of 33.5million ton.

Expressing satisfaction to meet the challenge, he said also a wheat crop is sufficient to deal with the challenge. About the rice crop, he said it was damaged due to floodwaters. “The actual estimate would clear the situation soon,” he said, mentioning that vegetables in rural and urban areas were damaged. Other agriculture experts viewed that nearly forty percent of the cotton crop in central and southern Punjab has been destroyed. The rice crops of Hafizabad, Shakar Garh and nearby areas were damaged badly. The rural areas of main cotton belts of Punjab and Sindh including Multan, Bahawalnagar, Bhawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan , Rajan Pur and other rural areas of Sindh were submerged.

Published Date: September 11, 2025