The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has warned of ill-timed rains in the country due to climate change
PESHAWAR: According to media reports, Pakistan’s vulnerability to the impact of climate change has been increasing with the passage of time, despite that its contribution to global warming is negligible. It is currently in the seventh position among the world’s top ten countries most vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change and global warming. The country’s greenhouse gas emission is less than one per cent of global emissions, but it is still one of the most vulnerable to its impacts. In 2015, Pakistan was at the eighth position and now it has moved up one spot.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has warned of ill-timed rains in the country in the future due to climate change, which will threaten crops. Future projections indicate that there will be no significant change in rainfall amounts due to climate change, but its temporal and spatial distribution will be highly influenced due to climate change. Thus, the untimely rains may threaten crop production in the future, increasing losses at the maturity stage. Also, the temperatures are likely to increase at the rate of 0.4 Celsius per decade in the agricultural plains of Punjab and Sindh, ultimately increasing the water requirement of crops. The hot weather conditions could retard the crops’ growth and development. Research has shown that high temperatures, coupled with abnormally wet summer climatic conditions in cotton zones could help pathogens grow to hamper good crop yields. In the absence of adaptation measures, the anticipated losses and uncertainty in crop production will be magnified many times over the prevailing scenarios. The PMD research indicated that temperatures in agricultural plains had risen over the last 60 years and the increase in the recent two decades was higher than the previous decades.
The untimely rains have significantly impacted the crop production, especially rains at the time of harvesting and threshing, causing pre-and post-harvest losses. Abnormally wet weather conditions at critical stages of crop growth and development promote the growth of insects and pests, which can reduce the quantity and quality of yield. Hence, there is a strong need on the part of all concerned to give thoughtful consideration to this matter of national importance.
Khan Faraz
Published in The Express Tribune, February 2nd, 2017.
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