Impacts of flood on livelihoods and food security of rural communities: A case study of southern Punjab, Pakistan
Pakistan faced a tragic and massive flood in mid of 2010. The occurred disaster was of unprecedented level affecting more than 20.1 million population in the entire country. The Punjab province was major hit by the flood. District Muzaffargarh was the major flood affected area of Punjab and was selected as a study area. The findings revealed that agriculture was the major income source of the area and flood-affected the natural capitals (land, irrigation, orchards and livestock) pushing the income-generating sources into darkness.
These situations made the people food deficit and food insecure as they had to use contaminated commodities especially water. Generally, that disaster pushed the farmers’ prosperity to several years back. Integration of public and private sector along with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and national and international funding agencies can help to gain their resilience. Furthermore, the establishment of an early warning system and capacity building of flood victims will be helpful to cope with disasters.
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