Harsh climate calls for resilient crops

Nation faces serious food security crisis due to burgeoning population

ISLAMABAD:

In recently observed harsh weather phenomena, research on climate-resistant crops is emerging as a major challenge for agricultural researchers. Last year’s floods that destroyed crops on vast tracts of land and the recent torrential rains and hail- and windstorms that badly affected the wheat crops have already rang alarm bells for the policymakers and experts working in the agricultural sector.

The nation will also be facing serious food security issues with its population almost nearing 240 million, and it is high time the country moved forward to produce climate-resistant and high-yielding crops.

Although scientists at the Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) Faisalabad are working on climate-resilient varieties of wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane, cotton, pulses, vegetable and oil-seed, yet this process needs to be done at a mass scale.

“Climatic changes are badly affecting countries, including Pakistan, not only by changing seasons’ duration but also affected crops sustenance and yield," said Dr. Naveed Siddiqui, the Director of the Agronomy Department at the Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI).

Talking about aftereffects of hailstorms and floods, he said it damaged fertility and affected crop sowing cycles.

“As the climate change has shrunk winter duration, we are working on seeds with the ability for late sowing and early ripening crops. Our focus is to reduce the duration of different crops to obtain produce within minimum time, avoiding the storm season and harsh weather. We hope to get secure and more yielding crops through this mechanism," he said.

He said that intensive cultivation was yet another fact for getting more yield by sowing maximum number of plants in an acre. Dr. Siddiqui said that the Institute was also working on combination of various crops to enhance overall crops productivity with one crop supplementing the other and helping the farmers to harvest one after another crop instead of preparing bed for other crops after harvesting the one.

Dr. Fahd Rasul, associate professor at the Department of Agronomy at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF), also stressed on the promotion of climate-resistant crops in view of the changing weather patterns.

“We are also researching on climate resistant crop varieties with ability to get maximum yield and enduring harsh weather impacts like floods, storms and droughts," he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2023.