KARACHI: Devastating floods in Pakistan are estimated to have caused the country around $3 billion agricultural losses, posing a potential threat to the country’s food security after floodwaters submerged large swathes of prime farmland, officials, growers and exporters said on Friday.

A third of the South Asian country, already reeling from an economic crisis, is under water with early estimates putting the overall losses at around $10 billion, according to the country’s planning and disaster management authorities. More than 1,200 people have been killed and 33 million affected across Pakistan since the onset of monsoon season in mid-June.

Independent research institutions have estimated that the country has suffered nearly $3 billion losses due to destruction of crops in the southern Sindh and southwestern Balochistan provinces.

“The range of damages to crops in Sindh is between $800 million to $1.2 billion and in Balochistan it is between $600 million to $1 billion,” Uzair Younus, director of Pakistan Initiative at the Washington-based Atlantic Council think tank, told Arab News.

“The range of damages to crops in Punjab is between $60 million to $150 million and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa it is between $300 million to $500 million.”

Younus explained these estimates were based on market prices available online for different crops, the area affected and data from provincial and national disaster management authorities.

The agriculture sector in Sindh was worst hit by floods as the initial official estimates show the province has suffered Rs297.3 billion ($1.36 billion), according to the provincial agriculture, supply and prices department.

Official data shows the province has suffered Rs205.4 billion losses due to complete damage to cotton crop, Rs50.8 billion to rice, Rs10 billion to onion and Rs7 billion to date palm till August 24.

Growers in Sindh say some of them have lost entire cotton, rice and onion crops which has caused them huge financial losses.

“Rice was sown at 1.7 million acres in Sindh out of which around 900,000 acres have been destroyed. Eighty percent of the crop in Sindh has been washed away, damaged or destroyed,” Nabi Bux Sathio, senior vice president at the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, told Arab News.

“This year rains and floods have largely hit the rice-producing belt of Sindh, including Shikharpur, Larkana, Jacobabad, and Dadu districts, where 80 percent rice crop is cultivated. We export rice in large quantity and 80 percent of it comes from Sindh.”

Pakistan exported rice worth $2.5 billion in the last fiscal year, but huge damages to the crop has clouded the future of rice exports — a worrisome situation for exporters.

“Around 3.5 million tons of rice came from Sindh out of 4.8 million tons exported last year,” Rafique Suleman, convener of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s (FPCCI) standing committee on rice, told Arab News.

“Still the exact damage data is being assessed but initial estimates suggest that Pakistan’s 30 percent rice exports may be hit by floods. We would be fortunate if we hit $2 billion exports this year.”

Suleman demanded immediate release of containers and rice-processing machinery stuck at the country’s seaports to mitigate the export woes.

Growers say floods also pose a serious threat to the next winter crop, wheat and if timely actions, including compensation to farmers, were not taken, then it may threaten food security in Pakistan.

“Cotton, rice, dates, onion, chilies, tomato, sugarcane and other crops have been damaged and farmers have lost their investment and seeds for the next season,” Sathio said.

“Government should announce compensation package for farmers, including cash support at the rate of Rs10,000 ($45) per acre, and waiver of markup on agriculture loans and provide loans on subsidized rates.”

Pakistani government officials agree that huge floods have exposed the country to food security risks, but they are optimistic that the international aid would mitigate the impact of the devastation.

“There is no doubt that flood damages are too high and are potential risk to food security, but with the inflow of international aid we hope that the impacts would be mitigated,” Ahmad Raza Maneka, parliamentary secretary for National Food Security & Research, told Arab News.

“Keeping in view the scale of the disaster, it would take some time to recover but we will cover the losses. The funds have been received for the purpose.”

Already reeling from a crisis, Pakistan’s economy is projected to slow down to 3.5 percent during the current fiscal year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, the Fund has not taken flood-related impacts into consideration.