With Pakistan falling among the most vulnerable countries to climate change, this emerging phenomenon of recent decades has been felt in every field of life especially affecting water and food production across the world.
This men-made challenge is being paged at all forums to contain it in one way or the other as the situation has pressed the world to mull over various means and examine lots of methods particularly Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) to manage crops naturally and effectively.
Changing climate has emerged as a threat to the world economies and production in the form of extreme weather patterns and events, droughts, heat waves, floods, food insecurity and other challenges, Pakistan is also not an exception.
This phenomenon has raised the eye brows of scientists and experts globally with many research organizations working on weather patterns and subsequent effects on agriculture especially the food items.
“Climate-Smart Agriculture practices are vital and should be initiated in the country to improve crops yield,” remarked Chairman of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) Dr. Ghulam Mohammad Ali. “Presently, a few farmers are using CSA and we need to promote these practices and technology on broader scale to improve crops yield.”
Since, Pakistan enjoys all weathers, considerably more favorable for all kinds of crops, it needs more resources to fully implement CSA, Dr Muhammad Ali said.
“Pakistan needs a huge amount under Climate Fund for Agriculture to save water and ensure food security,” he said. “We have fertile lands and PARC is introducing different techniques to improve crop yields on these lands.”
He said use of modern technologies in agri-foods will help reduce import of crops like potatoes, as the aeroponic technique is being employed to produce potato seeds locally.
He advised the farmers to grow heat-tolerant crops and use high-efficient irrigation system in their fields for considerable growth in production through climate friendly practices.
According to Climate Knowledge Portal of the World Bank (WB), changes in monsoon patterns and high temperatures are likely to bring considerable challenges to agricultural sector in Pakistan. The WB portal also considers the agriculture as the second largest sector of Pakistan providing employment to 25 million people and a main source of income for 34 percent men and 74 percent women.
Being an agrarian country, Pakistan mostly suffers from periods of severe droughts and devastating floods due to climate change. The floods of 2010 and 2022 damaged crops, houses and infrastructure displacing millions of people and causing great loss to country’s economy.
The portal highlights that floods of 2010 left around ‘90 million people food insecure’ and stressed to adopt CSA strategies to help mitigate and adapt to extreme events that is critical for food security in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the UN-Pakistan 2022 floods response plan also indicated that 33 million people were affected from rains and floods in Pakistan. Approximately two million acres crops and orchards were affected in Balochistan, 178,186 acres in Punjab and around 1.54 million acres in Sindh.
According to Ministry of National Food Security and Research data, Pakistan being an agricultural economy depends specifically on its agriculture sector as this sector contributes 22.9 percent in GDP and 37.4 percent in employment and export earnings.
Globally, Pakistan is considered among the main victims of increasing temperatures as the Global Climate Risk Index 2021 listed Pakistan on 8th position among the countries most vulnerable to impacts of climate change. The data in 2022 and 2023 could have been more shocking, had the watchdog been able to compile it.
The irony is that despite being a contributor of even less than one percent global emission of greenhouse gases, Pakistan is severely experiencing the impacts of climate change. People in Pakistan are speaking up about growing heat wave incidents and in particular regarding the close-weather related extreme events.
Those on foot seem desperate running pillar to post to reach and stand under a shed while moving to their destinations or avoid coming out of their homes. This situation can create more damaging effects on health of people and limit them if it is not brought under the control. Simply talking of future effects of climate change and global warming and subsequent food insecurity, the widespread use of CSA in Pakistan can help reduce the severe effects of climate change and secure food systems of the country.
