Climate change has become scariest truth to pose multiple threats to crops. Erratic rainfall, persisting droughts, continuous floods and heat waves are some highly debatable aspects affecting food security around the corner of world. In this context, Pakistan is of no exception being prone to climate change consequences. Likewise, droughts are putting pressure on water availability which may be a might blow to farming. Recent famine in Thar of Sindh province is leading example to document a wakeup call. According to the estimation by the 2030, crop insurance yield per unity area will decrease in many regions nationwide.
Unfortunately, phenomenon is under debate on global level but in Pakistan concrete policy formulation is seen as sluggish. Diversified climate grace Pakistan with four seasons to grab multiple crops productivities including fruits, vegetables and cash crops. Pakistan has global recognition in production of cotton, citrus, mango, rice, onion and grabbing enough capital to support economy and farmers livelihood. Unfortunately,serious negative impacts of climate change have pushedproductivity down. Farmers are facing losses in terms of production and profit. Destruction of standing crops due to floods, wastage of produce pertinent to torrential rains, stunted growth due to drought incidence and loss of production and quality attributed to strong winds have been documented immensely in last decade.Furthermore, cropping patterns has been changed due to increased temperature. Resultantly, cropping area is squeezed, farmers’ interest level is down streaming, and average production is falling adding extra pressure on economy to grab a foreign debt to sustain the economy.
Climate change has left no chance for farmers except leaving farming or selling their productive land for commercial colonies. If their commercialization persists in future at pace there will be no more land for cultivation and feeding an increasing mouths will be impossible. The magnitude of poverty and food insecurity will rise over the period of time. The hard realities of climate change points the dire need of quick overhauling through strategic planning and execution. Globally, government bodiesare paying due attentions to support their farmers against mitigation of climatic risks for upscaling their interest in agricultural activities. For instance,crop Insurance;the initiative 0to facilitate farming community in terms of risks management for better gains.Insurance reduces the uncertainty of farmers and the need to create individual savings accounts or funds, given that the need for cash reserves reduced. The world Bank has suggested that lack of access to agricultural insurance, which is one of the ten key factors in solving the crisis of food insurance, is a serious barrier to productivity, investment and efficiency in agriculture marketing system. Successful implementation of crop insurance is widely documented in various countries including India, Brazil, USA, UK and China. China is among the most successful countries in the world that applied agricultural insurance and achieved success. Unfortunately, crop insurance is in Pakistan is still on discussion level. Though, Natural disasters frequency and magnitude is on rise from the last decade. Losses pertinent to these natural disasters are high. For instance, the incidence of flood 2010, and 20111 destroyed the standing cotton crop. In true sense the destruction was not of crop but it was of farmers’ livelihood and national economy. Now, when population is increasing at pace and risks in farming are increasing multiple time creating huge gap of supply and demand. In this context, it is a time to rise and implement different initiatives of crop insurance in Pakistan to facilitate farmers. Insurance is of different types like, Single-Risk Insurance, combine insurance, yield, price and revenue insurance etc. and through strategic planning execution can be made possible for the welfare of farmers, farming and ever increasing climate change mitigation.
This article is collectively authored by Gulfam Hassan, Ijaz Ashraf and Saleem Ashraf.