The other day, I was talking to an agriculturist friend from Sahiwal. He said he has lost a substantial portion of his cotton crop this year due to shortage of water. This he attributed to scarce canal water supply and loadshedding which rendered his tube-well unutilized. Less cotton means less export earnings as well as restricted raw materials for our textile industry. That, in turn, would lead to a socio-economic crisis of a different dimension. There was a report on a TV channel today that wheat sowing in this year is likely to fall short of the targeted area on account of lack of timely water supply. This will obviously effect the total wheat crop we would have for the next year. If this happens, we will then have to buy wheat from international market to feed ourselves. Where are we headed? -MOBEEN AFZAL, Lahore, via e-mail, November 20.