NGO launches report on Tharparkar district
The Dawn, By Our Staff Reporter, 15/10/2002

KARACHI, Oct 14: The drought has gripped the Tharparkar district creating deficit of food and limiting opportunities of livelihood and there was urgent need to provide humanitarian assistance to the population, says a report.

The report, prepared by a non governmental organization the Thardeep Rural Development Programme and launched on Monday, says that the food deficit and limited opportunities of livelihood would increase the vulnerability of women and children, and the issue if not tackled carefully and timely might cause increase in infant and maternal mortality rate.

Suggesting the remedial measures the report has urged the government, NGOs and international donors to supply free food for over 58,000 households (population roughly 300,000) for next seven to eight months and fodder for nearly 2 million livestock - goats, sheep, cows) on subsidised rates.

The report fearing the spread of diseases owing to malnutrition affected human body's immune system has urged the authorities to launch a campaign in the areas before any epidemic spreads. It said that increasing number of cases of night blindness were already being reported.

The report says that Tharkarpar has a population of over 914,000 comprising 163,214 households with an average size of 5.6 people, and the major source of income for nearly 80 per cent of the population is rain-fed agriculture and livestock.

The population between the 1981 and 1998 had increased by 68 per cent with an annual growth rate of 3.13 per cent and if it continued at the present rate it would double in next 22 years.

The report says that the population of livestock is over 3.6 million and on an average 60 per cent of the households owned between 5 and 20 goats or sheep and the rest of 40 per cent households owned more than 30 sheep or goats in addition to 10 cows.

It says main crops of the area are Bajra (millet) and guwar which need at least three monsoon rains of 150-200 millimetres for maturity. The rains also support the grazing lands to grow seasonal grasses that provide fodder to over 3.5 million population of livestock.

The report says that the crop and livestock production contributed between 30-40 per cent directly in the food of the poor and lower middle class households, and are also the major source of cash for these households to purchase between 35 to 45 per cent of other food items from the market in normal years.

The report says that the scarcity of rains in monsoon 2002 resulted in failure of crop production and non availability of grasses in the grazing fields and the preliminary manifestations of drought by the end of August included:

Seventy per cent deficit in the sources of food of the poor and lower middle class households. It attributes to three major sources - crop production, agricultural loans and wage labour.

Sixty-five per cent increase in the livestock sale simultaneous with an average decline of over 53 per cent in its (livestock) market value.

The report says that eight per cent increase in price of flour, 26.6 per cent increase in the price of rice and over 18 per cent increase in price of fodder was reported during the season.

It says that harsh conditions had forced 21 per cent of the households to migrate with entire families. The earning members of 36 per cent of the remaining households had also migrated to the canal irrigated areas to seek wage labour and to feed the livestock.

It said that there would be tough time for the 36 per cent of the households whose earning members have left for the irrigated areas as the responsibility to secure food in these families had been shifted to female members and the children would also have to go for earning. The report was launched at a local hotel on Monday.

http://www.dawn.com/2002/10/15/local9.htm