PESHAWAR: Farmers in Swat Valley on Sunday sought the government’s help to recover from the heavy losses they face after heavy rains and hailstorms over the weekend battered the valley, decimating orchards and standing crops. Besides orchards, standing wheat crops on 100,000 acres in Swat district, which would have been ready for harvesting within four weeks, are also of no use now,” he added. He explained that farmers are now mired in debts of middlemen due to loans they took to look after the plantations. In the context, the survey added, the total loss of crops and orchards on 200,000 acres across Swat is about Rs30 billion. Furthermore, officials of the Kokari Farmers’ Board also demanded the provincial government to immediately compensate for the calamity-affected agricultural sector of the valley by announcing an adequate financial assistance package for farmers.

Source: Pakistan Today May 03, 2020 17:03 UTC