Near Kunri, a southern Pakistani town known as Asia's chili capital, 40-year old farmer Leman Raj searches through dried plants for surviving chillis after successive heatwaves and floods destroyed his crop. "My crops suffered heavily from the heat, then the rains started, and the weather changed completely. Now, because of the heavy rains we have suffered heavy losses in our crops, and this is what has happened to the chillies," he said, holding up desiccated, rotten plants. "All the chillies have rotted away."

Farmers and experts say the more extreme climate conditions are hitting rural economies hard, underscoring the vulnerability of swathes of South Asia's population to changing weather patterns. Officials have already estimated damages from the floods at over $40 billion. Pakistan is ranked fourth in the world for chili production, with 150,000 acres of farms producing 143,000 tonnes annually.

Before the floods, hot temperatures made it harder to grow chili, which needs more moderate conditions. "When I was a child ... the heat was never so intense. We used to have a plentiful crop, now it has become so hot, and the rains are so scarce that our yields have dwindled," Raj said.

Dr Attaullah Khan, director of the Arid Zone Research Centre at Pakistan's Agricultural Research Council, told Reuters that heatwaves over the past three years had affected the growth of chili crops in the area. Now the floods pose a whole new set of challenges. In Kunri's bustling wholesale chili market, traders reported a dramatic drop in supply—from 8,000 to 10,000 bags last year to barely 2,000 bags this year.