Farmers and climate.

Byline: Waseem Akram - Toba Tek Singh

RISING sea level, melting glaciers, surging global temperature, frequent floods and untimely rainfall are the effects of climate change. Developing countries are the most affected ones from climate change as they do not have essential technological and financial resources to mitigate the situation. Pakistan is among the most vulnerable countries being affected by climate change.

The changing weather pattern is adversely affecting our agricultural sector, generally, and the crop sector, particularly. We know that wheat- growing regions of Punjab and Sindh are generally hot and dry in April and May because it marks the beginning of the harvesting season.

But this pattern is now changing in the sense that it rains regularly in wheat growing regions this time around and summer has still not set in. I live in a village in central Punjab where it rains at least twice a week and, at present, temperature has not gone past the usual 40 Centigrade in May. Therefore, this incessant rainfall has delayed the harvest of wheat. This untimely rainfall lowers the growth of wheat.

According to the last Economic Survey, all three major crops - wheat, rice and sugarcane - registered a negative growth compared to the previous year. This changing weather pattern also reduces wheat yield...

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