Pakistan

Pakistan Drought Threatens Nomads With Famine
By Cynthia Long, DisasterRelief.org, April 21, 2000

After touring affected regions, experts from the international relief organization Oxfam warned that some areas could face a famine similar to the one currently threatening thousands of people in Ethiopia. The team, which is preparing to launch a relief effort, said that a wide band stretching from southern Afghanistan to Pakistan and Gujarat in India had been badly affected by the searing drought. Many of the areas have been parched of rainwater for three consecutive years, with an almost total lack of rain during the past winter. The economic impact of the drought has been severe. Market prices for livestock have plummeted and, in lower-lying areas where wheat crops are usually grown, fields lay barren from the lack of rainfall. Now there is a shortage of wheat flour in the local markets and the yield is being rationed among the hungry population.

FAO: Severe Drought Devastates Pakistan’s Largest Province
Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N, July 2000

Three consecutive years of serious drought have severely damaged crop and livestock production in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan. Cereal output this year is 20 percent below average and livestock losses are extremely heavy. Baluchistan, Pakistan's largest province, accounts for nearly 20 percent of national livestock, making it the area's most important sector. According to a recent FAO/WFP joint mission, in the most affected of the province's 26 districts, farmers have lost up to 50 percent of their sheep and up to 40 percent of their goats. Domestic milk production is down by as much as 80 percent. Both animal feed and medicines are urgently needed simply to maintain a minimum breeding stock in these districts. The devastating drought conditions have similarly decimated crop production. Rainfed wheat has almost completely failed. Other cereal output is also down, leading to an overall 20 percent decline compared to the last four years. This leaves a deficit of 93 000 tonnes for the coming year.