International Rescue Committee (IRC)

Race against time

Photos: 
Farmers including Obaid Ullah, 44, (center) happily load their wheat seeds onto a cart to take them to their fields for planting the next day. Failure to plant would mean another year without crops, food and income. <br /><br /><em>Photo: Selena Marr/The IRC</em><br /><br />
Haji Khan, 50, (right) helps Obaid Ullah (center) load a bag of wheat seeds onto a wheelbarrow. Khan says that he had carefully saved seeds from previous crops, but that they had all washed away in the floods. "These seeds make me very happy," he says.<br /><br /><em>Photo: Selena Marr/The IRC</em><br /><br />
Loading wheat seeds onto a cart to take to home. The IRC is also providing Khan, Ullah and other farmers in the area with 12,000 bags of fertilizer.<br /><br /><em>Photo: Selena Marr/The IRC</em><br /><br />
Azra (in red) and her friends watch as their fathers collect the wheat seeds for planting. These seeds will grow into much needed crops that will provide income for many families, Azra says with a hopeful smile.<br /><br /><em>Photo: Selena Marr/The IRC</em><br /><br />
Obaid Ullah with his wheat seeds.
Photo: Selena Marr/The IRC

Farmers in flood ravaged Pakistan are in a race against time to plough fields and sow seeds before the end of the winter planting season.  Failure to plant will mean another year without crops, food and income. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, the IRC is rushing to provide some 3,500 farmers with 300 tons of seeds.