'FAO stresses climate-smart agriculture, good policy'.

HYDERABAD -- Participants in a consultative session held here on Friday under the aegis of the Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) emphasised the need for forming a provincial forum on climate change, disaster risk reduction and climate resilience.

They observed that the purpose of forming such a forum was to prioritise an agenda for climate resilience derived from charter of demands and accountability tools. It would formulate proposals to improve climate resilience among rural population that most often than not would confront problems.

They presented proposals for the provincial government to chalk out relevant policies that have been pending for a long time.

Mumtaz Mangi of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation dwelt at length on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) which was being promoted by FAO. He said that agriculture sector used 90pc of water and 40pc of labour and this sector produced 90pc of food resources.

'People need to pay attention to this sector and show adaptation to ensure food security. Good agriculture practices can help ensure mitigation of problems and enhancing of production of food. Through this adaptation, income of haris/growers could increase but they need to adopt practices for sustainable agriculture.'

He advised farmers that instead of levelling their landscape within farmland, they should grow crops and plants there to beautify it. He said growers could also pay attention to agro-forestry by growing fruit trees on border of their farmland. He said that rainwater harvesting needed to be focused on as well and improved water usage efficiency should not be lost sight of.

Prof Mohammad Ismail Kumbhar of Sindh Agriculture University (SAU), Tandojam, discussed impacts of climate change on food security indicating that increased urbanisation was reducing size of farmland and causing low productivity. He said absence of a land-use policy and promotion of urbanisation on fertile lands could cause food insecurity.

He talked about degradation of natural water bodies, saying that 1,209...