Climate change impact on cropping system of Pakistan

Cropping system determine how crops are grown, by determining the arrangement of crops in time and space and the way in which they are planted (density), fertilized, irrigated, weeded, and harvested.

Climate change impact on cropping system of PakistanThe Impacts of climate change on crop production and farm level adaptation practices was under taking in Pakistan.

The climate change indicators that  few farmers in Pakistan  are aware of intense heat, lengthy drought, reduced amount of rainfall, unusual heavy rainfall, flooding, drying up of rivers, lakes and streams.

In spite of this awareness, The studies also discovered that the adaptive ability of the crop farmers is still very low.

  1. INTRODUCTION

Climate change is a change in the climatic conditions over a period of time due to the effects of natural variability and/or as a result of human anthropogenic activities.

It is a significant alteration in the climatic conditions (precipitation, temperature, wind patterns) of a place or region over a long period of time resulting in changes in ecosystems and socioeconomic activities.

Climate change has a global effect , but the most adverse effects is probably to be felt the most in developing world like African and Asian countries.

The vulnerability of Pakistani farmers to the effects of climate change is expected to be most severe in Sindh and Punjab , due to their low coping capability.

The effects of climate change cut across all the sub-sectors of agriculture such as livestock, crop production, agro forestry, fishery, and agricultural products processing .

A wide range of adaptation practices exist within farming system to help maintain or increase crop and other agricultural yields under climate change.

Climate change adaptation in the cropping system encompasses techniques or practices that enable the cropping community or individual farmers to manage or adjust to the impacts of the change in climate.

Some of these practices include cover cropping, early planting, timely weeding, controlled use of agro-chemicals and use of tolerant varieties.

Farmers’ adaptation to the effects of climate change is a function of their awareness of the changes in the climatic conditions.  “Climate change awareness is a synthesis of the people’s

Conception, interpretation and perceptions of climate change related issues which affect their behavior, and the quality of responses and reactions to the problem.

Insufficient information about climate change may limits farmer of awareness of this global phenomenon and them more vulnerable to the devastating effects of climate change.

The traditional cropping  techniques are still practiced .This is a clear indication of lack of adequate knowledge of climate change, as the emission of carbon dioxide and other Green House Gases (GHG) in these practices cause and aggravate climate change .

This study therefore was carried out to determine the level of climate change awareness, effect of on crop production and level of adaptation among our  farmers.

  1. METHODOLOGY

Three research questions are formulated for the purpose of this study as follows:

  1. What is the awareness level of climate change among small holder crop farmers?
  2. What is the impact of climate change on crop production activities of farmers?
  3. What are the levels of adaptation practices for sustainable crop production?
  1. MAJOR CLIMATE CHANGES

Increased cases of flooding in crop fields; prolonged drought resulting in crop failure; Deceased soil moisture for plant growth; Drying up of rivers, lakes and streams for crop production; poor quality of stored farm produce as a result of heat; Increased drying up of seedlings after germination;

Increased heat stress on crops and Increased soil erosion resulting from unusual heavy rains that climate change is more likely to affect food production, health, biodiversity lost and fuel (wood) availability rather than affect businesses or cause disasters.

Authors: Haroon zaman khan, Muhammad Atif  Shabir,  Tayyab Naveed, Sammar Abbas , Asif Iqbal .