ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 26th Jan, 2025) The ongoing severe winter drought, which has adversely affected winter sowing, particularly wheat in the country, is in fact a part of the larger trend of increasing climate variability that threatens to disrupt agriculture, exacerbate water shortages and elevate the risks of future droughts across the country.
But building more water reservoirs, restoring wetlands, and promoting drought-tolerant crop varieties can go a long way in mitigating recurring and intensifying drought risks in the country.
This was stated by Muhammad Saleem Shaikh, a climate policy expert and spokesperson for the climate change and environmental coordination ministry, in a press statement issued here on Sunday.
He said that the country is currently grappling with a unusual winter drought because of 40pc below normal rains between September 2024 to January 2025, which has put productivity of winter crops and livelihoods of farming communities at risk.
Due to acutely low rains, water stress has already exacerbated further in cultivated lands in Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, in particularly in rain-fed regions, due to the limited supply of irrigation water from river system for Rabi crops, he added.
“If the rainfall situation does not improve anytime soon, wheat production may suffer up to 50pc,” the ministry official Muhammad Saleem Shaikh warned, urging farmers to use water resources available for irrigation in any form more judiciously.
He highlighted that reduced water availability due to low rainfall was adversely impacting the growth of crops like wheat, a staple food as well as vital cash crops like potato, leading to fears of lower production and rising food prices and their shortages in future.
He said that the ongoing winter drought conditions in the country underscore the urgent need for a unified response to address the country’s water crisis. “It is imperative that all stakeholders work together to build a sustainable future, strengthen water resilience and safeguard the livelihoods of millions of people depending on agriculture and water resources for survival,” the ministry official emphasised.
He said that the national climate change policy has already highlighted that country’s socioeconomic circumstances further augment its vulnerability to projected temperature increases, more variable rainfall patterns and a greater risk of more intense and frequent droughts.
“While droughts in future are likely to grow more frequent and intense in the country, large-scale infrastructure projects, such as the construction of water reservoirs and restoring wetlands for storing excessive flood and rainwater as a part of larger drought mitigation strategy are inevitable,” the climate policy expert and spokesperson Muhammad Saleem Shaikh suggested.
Nonetheless, he cautioned that such water storing initiatives are unlikely to yield desired results as long as adequate investments in water conservation and efficient irrigation technology are not made and its dissemination to farmers is not ensured.
Pakistan is home to around 225 nationally-significant wetlands, which cover 0.78 million hectares (9.7% of the country’s land area). Nineteen of these wetlands are declared as Ramsar sites for being wetlands of global significance due to unique landscape, biodiversity (flora and fauna) they harbour. But, unfortunately, many of them are degraded or blocked by encroachments.
“Restoration and sustainable management of degraded or encroached wetlands in the country can be a paramount drought and flood risk mitigation policy measure as well as for tackling the country’s water security, stemming biodiversity loss and a vital step towards building country’s flood and drought-resilience,” the climate ministry official Muhammad Saleem remarked.
Referring to national climate change policy recommendations for mitigation of drought impacts, particularly on agriculture sector, Mr. Shaikh emphasised that rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge and the adoption of modern irrigation methods like drip and sprinkler systems are no longer optional; they are critical tools in our survival weaponry.
The ministry official also said that overall last a few years there has been adequate research on developing new drought-tolerant high-yield varieties of crops in the country in collaboration with international agricultural research organisations.
“Efforts should also be made by the country’s agricultural scientists for plantation of such drought-tolerant food crop varieties through unhampered provision of such crop seeds to the farmers and dissemination of information among farmers through their agricultural extension department about its proper plantation for achieving desired crop yields,” the climate change ministry official Muhammad Saleem Shaikh urged.
He also said that while the drought has already been acknowledged as a major climate risk and threat to the country’s agrarian economy, various policy measures have been recommendation for drought risk mitigation.
“Tackling growing risk of droughts in the country will not be any herculean task for the country, if drought mitigation measures, as recommended in the national climate change policy, are implemented in true spirit by provincial authorities as well as Federal and provincial agricultural, irrigation and water organisations as a unified response,” the ministry’s climate policy expert Muhammad Saleem remarked.
