Pakistani agriculture, on which the country depends
for its food supply, depends in its turn on the annual monsoon. If the monsoon
breaks at the proper time and brings sufficient rain, the crops are abundant;
but if it fails, or comes very late, the crops fail and agriculture is brought
to a stand-still; and the result is dearth of food, or famine, with all its
terrible consequences.
As there is no reason to think that the climate of
Pakistan has radically changed in historical times, famines must have been as
frequent and severe in older times as they are today If we have not many historical
records of famines in the past, this is due to the fact that ancient histories,
which were devoted mainly to the description of wars, the policy of Kings and
the intrigues of royal courts, considered the lives and sufferings of the
common people beneath their notice.
In fact famines are not to body the terrible
disasters they were in the old days. Before the introduction of railways and
good roads, a famine-stricken district was helpless. In that district there was
little or no food, and as food could not be brought from a distance. The people
simply died of starvation by the thousands. The introductions of railways about
the middle of the 19th century, and the construction of good metaled road, have
changed the character of famines. Now-a-days in a famine-stricken districts
there is no lack of food, because corn is brought in by the railways from the
districts where the monsoon has not failed. So there is no starvation from an
absolute dearth of food.
The difficulty, however, remains that the poor
people, who are thrown out of work by the failure of monsoon, have no money to
buy food, however abundant it is. This difficulty has been met by the elaborate
rate system of Government famine relief. As soon as famine conditions appear in
a district, the Government opens famine relief works, on which the out-of-work
agriculturists are employed at fair was e, which enables them to buy sufficient
food to keep themselves e and in good health. Hence in a modern famine there is
little starvation and loss of life.
Beside this, a large area of the country has been
made safe from famine by the wonderful irrigation canals, especially in Punjab.
Which make agriculture independent of monsoon? The canal system in Pakistan in
the best system all over the world. All our count there is a net of canal is
irrigate all the agricultural lands. In this way, there are less chances of
famine at present.
So, thanks to the railways, the Government famine
relief s stems. And irrigation famine in modern times has been robbed of’ much
of its terrors. It does not mean that we should canals, ignore this one danger.
There can be a problem of famine in any part of the world or the country. We
should be ready to cope with all kind of situation.