Floods wash away Pakistan's crop research efforts - SciDev.Net

Floods wash away Pakistan's crop research efforts - SciDev.Net

The recent Pakistan floods have caused substantial damage to the country's crop research, washing away new seed varieties and test crops planted in the fields, and damaging buildings and equipment, leaving the country's research institutes in disrepair.

So far, the floods have killed more than 2,000 people and affected a further 21 million, killed 200,000 livestock and destroyed 4.25 million acres of crops worth US$5 billion, according to estimates from the Ministry for Food and Agriculture and Livestock.

The country has lost not just major crops such as wheat, cotton, rice, millet and sugar cane, but valuable new seed varieties developed over years to increase staple crop yields for particular regions. The long-lasting floods will also affect the ecology of the region rendering much previous crop research useless.