Pakistan needs resilient agriculture sector to tackle climate change: MNFSR

Pakistan needs to build a strong resilient agriculture sector to cope with the climate change risks. Climate change projections indicate that there will be greater variability in the weather with more frequent extreme events such as floods and droughts, says Zafar Hasan Secretary Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFSR).

Talking to Gwadar Pro the senior official said that much of the impact of these changes will be on the agriculture sector, which needs mechanisms to cope and adapt. It is further projected that there will be immense pressure on limited surface as well as ground water resources.

“These challenges could be managed through adopting soil and water conservation technologies, enhanced use of high efficiency irrigation systems, developing drought resistant varieties, and introducing climate smart agriculture”, he added.

Agriculture has been hit hard by recent flooding in Pakistan, where climate change-induced flooding has endangered food security and people's livelihoods and caused disruptions to agricultural exports, with more than 8 million acres of crops damaged and over 1.34 billion U.S. dollars lost in the country.

Therefore, Pakistan recently proposed the inclusion of “Water Resources Management & Climate Change” as a new area of cooperation into the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The proposal was made for efficient management of water resources, and the development of climate-resilient infrastructure in the third meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) between the government of Pakistan and the People’s Republic of China held earlier to review the long-term plan of CPEC.

China and Pakistan already launched a green corridor to further streamline cooperation in the areas of food security, new seed development, crops yield, corporate farming, and irrigation etc.

The government of Pakistan is hopeful that with the Chinese assistance in climate change sector Pakistan would be able to  protect agriculture sector from future floods and drought-like calamities.

Experts believe that without progress on climate and biodiversity, there can be no progress on food security. To address these interlinked challenges, both countries need an unprecedented level of multilateral, private, and public sector cooperation.