Pakistan can expect a good wheat harvest despite severe flooding last year, says the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), as seeds distributed to flood victims begin to ripen.
“FAO spent $54 million of international donor funding buying and distributing quality wheat seeds as part of its emergency intervention that began last August,” the Rome-based UN agency said in a statement.
“Once the harvest is completed, this donation will have produced a crop worth almost $190 million in wheat flour, the main staple,” and, “Provide enough food for half a million poor rural households,” it said.
“Farmers will be able to save the seeds from this year’s harvest to plant again later this year,” said Daniele Donati of FAO’s Emergency Operations Service. More than 18 million people in Pakistan were affected by last summer’s severe flooding, which caused extensive damage to housing, infrastructure and crops.
