Climate change

According to some media reports, Pakistan’s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change has been increasing despite the fact that its contribution to global warming is negligible. It is currently on 7th position among the world top ten countries vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change and global warming. The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has warned of untimely rains in the country in the future because of climate change which will threaten crops. The future projections indicate that there will be no significant change in rainfall amount, but its temporal and spatial distribution will be highly influenced. Thus the untimely rains may threaten the crop production in the future, increasing losses at the maturity stage. Also, the country’s average temperature is likely to increase at the rate of 0.4 degrees C per decade which will increase the water requirement of crops. The hot weather conditions could stunt the crops’ growth and development.

Research has shown that high temperatures, coupled with abnormally wet summer climatic conditions in cotton zone, could help pathogens grow to hamper good crop yields. In the absence of adaptation measures, the anticipated losses and uncertainty in the crop production will be magnified many times over the prevailing scenarios. The PMD research indicated that temperature in agricultural plains had risen over the last 60 years and the increase in the recent two decades was higher than the previous one. The untimely rains have significantly impacted the crop production especially rains at the time of harvesting and threshing cause pre and post-harvest losses. Abnormally wet weather conditions at critical stages of crop growth and development promoted the growth of insects and pest which reduced the quantity and quality of yield. In view of the above, there is a strong need on the part of all concerned to give a thoughtful consideration to this matter of national importance.

Khan Faraz

Peshawar