Climate smart agriculture project to be introduced in eight districts

Islamabad:The climate change ministry would spend 35 million dollar to introduce climate smart agriculture that would be able to cope with the challenges related to the climate change.

The funds for this ambitious project have been provided by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and these would be utilized in coordination with the provincial authorities. According to the details of the project, initially the climate smart agriculture would be launched in eight districts--five from South Punjab and three from Sindh—that are highly affected by the climate change.

The climate smart agriculture would help increase sustainable productivity, strengthen farmers' resilience, reduce agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration.

The official data showed that the Southern Punjab Poverty Alleviation Project has already been funded by International Fund for Agricultural Development loan worth 40 million dollar on highly concessional terms. The project aims to increase the income of 80,000 poor households through enhancing employment potential and increasing agriculture productivity and production.

The climate change is a global phenomenon so Pakistan despite among those countries who have very low Green House Gases (GHG) emissions is facing growing challenges in all sectors especially water and agriculture sectors.

The climate smart agriculture as an emerging science and innovation practice provides resilience to farming systems against negative impacts of the climate change. The spokesman of the climate change ministry informed that the climate smart agriculture is an effort to integrate climate change and agriculture development planning, specifically seeking out opportunities to link adaptation and mitigation efforts.

“The government has already developed various policies and interventions to diminish impacts of the climate change on agriculture and environment, demonstrating a commitment to addressing vulnerabilities and risks to the climate challenges,” he said.