ISLAMABAD: Coordinator to Federal Tax Ombudsman and Chairman Kyrgyzstan Trade House Meher Kashif Younis said agriculture production was under threat due to climate change in food-insecure regions, especially in Asian countries.

Talking to delegation of industrialists and traders led by Faran Shahid here today he said various climate-driven extremes, i.e., drought, heat waves, erratic and intense rainfall patterns, storms, floods and emerging insect pests have adversely affected livelihood of farmers.

He said future climatic predictions showed significant increase in temperature and erratic rainfall with higher intensity while variability exists in climatic patterns for climate extremes prediction.

For mid-century (2040-2069), it is projected that there will be rise of 2.8°C in maximum temperature and a 2.2°C in minimum temperature in Pakistan, he added. He said to respond to adverse effects of climate change scenarios, there is need to optimise climate-smart and resilient agricultural practices and technology for sustainable productivity.

He stressed urgent need for conducting a proper case study to quantify climate change effects on rice and wheat crops and to develop adaptation strategies for rice-wheat cropping system during mid-century (2040-2069) as these two crops have significant contributions to food production. He said recent report predicted that there would be yield reduction of 15.2 percent in rice and 14.1 percent in wheat that showed there would be yield reduction of 17.2 percent in rice and 12 percent in wheat.

Published in The Daily National Courier, April, 26 2023

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