Climate change, water shortage adversely affecting crop yield in KP

PESHAWAR: Climate change and reduction in water availability during the past 20 years has started leaving adverse effects on crops’ production in the agriculture rich areas of the province, said experts in a three-day workshop concluded here on Sunday.

The workshop on ‘Climate Change Adaptation and Water Management for Small Holder Farmers of KP’ was organised at the University of Peshawar with the support of the US Mission in Pakistan.

Dr Bushra Khan of the Department of Environmental Studies, University of Peshawar, was the resource person. A total of 60 participants including farmers, agriculture research officers and students of farming families from five districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda, Mardan and Swabi participated in the workshop. The experts on the occasion stressed the need for adaptive measures like rainwater conservation and harvesting techniques and better on-farm water management.

Director on-farm water management KP Dr Rab Nawaz acknowledged that 60 percent of the irrigation water goes waste due to non-availability and deteriorated water channels, which needed repair and reconstruction on war-footing.

The farmers said they had felt the climate impact in form of increase temperature and reduction in water availability due to erratic weather pattern. Untimely rains coupled with longer summer and shorter winter are adversely affecting the agriculture productivity.

The change in climate pattern has also resulted in increase in cost of crop production, including more use of fertilisers, pesticides, purchase of seeds and more electricity cost for watering the crops, the farmers said. The current climate trend has affected the crop productivity in the province.

The participants were informed about several techniques to upgrade their knowledge for better agricultural productivity, water management, agricultural sanitation and hygiene, and climate change resilience, adaption and mitigation measures during the workshop. The experts briefed the participants about a variety of the locally produced seeds and recommended that they could stand well against the impact of climate change. They emphasized on the joint role of government, academia, and international organizations to help the small farmers.