Silted watercourses heighten concerns for wheat farmers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
PESHAWAR, Oct 1 (APP): As the wheat sowing season approaches, the unfinished de-silting of watercourses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has raised concerns among wheat farmers, demanding its speedy completion to facilitate the tail end growers.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, many farmers are bracing for a challenging agricultural season due to the increasing silt, sand, and debris obstructing essential irrigation channels, particularly in the southern and plain districts of the province.
Farmers like Malyar Khan from Nowshera district embody the struggle of irrigating fields for wheat sowing that was also faced by many growers in his area.
Standing beside a dilapidated Mohib Banda-Tarkha water canal, the poor farmer expressed his frustration over the inadequate water flow reaching his fields located on northside of River Kabul.
“Tail-end farmers like me are facing an acute shortage of water to irrigate our fields for wheat crops,” he lamented, while voicing hope for rainfall to alleviate the dire situation.
Dr. Zilakat Malik, former Chairman, Economics Department, University of Peshawar said the water issue has been exacerbated by climate change, with last months torrential rains and flash floods leading to significant accumulation of sand and mud in most of watercourses.
He said this environmental challenge, coupled with the incomplete de-silting process, has left many farmers without reliable irrigation services.
“The water storage capacity has gradually declined from 16.26 million acre-feet (MAF) to 13.68 MAF in Pakistan. Resultantly, the country has about 30-day water carryover capacity as of 2021, which is in stark contrast to Egypt’s 700 days,” he said.
Due to the population explosion, deforestation and climate change, he said food security is becoming an intense challenge for Pakistan.
He said additional water required for wheat sowing season are placing intense pressure on our irrigation system to bring extra arid land under cultivation.
With each passing year, he said that water demand for our agriculture sector is rising due people large dependency on wheat, sugarcane and rice crops.
He said Pakistan, despite having about three per cent of the world’s population and contributing a mere 0.36pc to global GDP, accounted for an astounding 9pc of the world’s total groundwater withdrawals, making it the third-largest user after India and United States.
Dr Zilakat said the unchecked and ever-growing reliance on groundwater i.e about 73pc of Pakistan’s area is directly or indirectly dependent upon groundwater, has pushed it into the category of countries where groundwater extraction exceeds the natural replenishment of aquifers.
He reiterated that Pakistan was getting warmer due to global warming and climate change, melting glaciers fast.
In addition to the rise in mean temperature, he said the frequency, duration, and intensity of heat waves are also increasing besides shortening of winter that poses serious challenges to our agriculture, environment and food security.
“The rising temperatures and shortness of winter season increased the evaporation rate especially in water channels and enhanced an evapotranspiration ie water lost from evaporation and plant transpiration in agriculture fields.”
He said such water loss is particularly high in the water-guzzling rice crop, where farmers often keep fields flooded for several months.
Dr Zilakat said the rice crop acreage has increased 31pc over the last 10 years, driven by several factors, including better marketability of wheat and rice due to its higher export potential, strong local demand, and relatively higher returns.
Additionally, the crop area of two other water-intensive sugarcane and maize has also considerably expanded in recent years in Pakistan.
Gulzar Rehman, former Conservator of Forest Department said that Pakistan has made significant strides in reducing water conveyance losses through the lining of canals, distributaries, and watercourses, funded by soft loans from the World Bank and other international development partners that helped minimize water wastage.
He said these megaprojects, initiated during the 1970s, are still ongoing under the Annual Development Programmes of provincial irrigation and agriculture departments.
However, he said that the water use efficiency at the farm level is a crucial area where KP lags significantly behind.
Referring to a report of UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, he said that Pakistan’s irrigated agriculture water use efficiency ie Sustainable Development Goal 6.4.1 is low, averaging just $0.40 per cubic meter in 2021 compared to countries like Bangladesh and China where it stands at $0.98, and $2.51 per cubic meter respectively.
Gulzar Rehman noted that the adverse effects of electricity tariffs for agricultural tube wells on farmers are further compounded due to low water-use efficiency.
He said that an increasing number of farmers are shifting to solar tube wells to reduce irrigation cost. However, these systems have yet to prove as reliable alternatives as grid-powered ones due to the limited availability of sunlight during winter, which is further hindered by weather conditions like cloud cover, fog, and smog.
Local agriculture officials acknowledged the problem but cite resource limitations and logistical challenges in completing the de-silting work.
The community leaders and farmers have urged provincial authorities to prioritize the de-silting efforts. They called for immediate action to speed up water flow, which is vital for the upcoming sowing season.
The struggle of farmers like Malyar Khan underscored the urgent need for comprehensive solutions to address the water issues plaguing KP’s watercourses.
Without timely intervention, the province’s agricultural productivity could be severely compromised, jeopardizing the livelihoods of countless families.
The experts hoped that de-silting process would be completed soon and soft loans to farmers would be provided for construction of water channels that would help save irrigated water for tail end farmers but increase wheat, rice and sugarcane production in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
