Muhammad Abid

Climate change vulnerability, adaptation and risk perceptions at farm level in Punjab, Pakistan

Pakistan is among the countries highly exposed and vulnerable to climate change. The country has experienced many severe floods, droughts and storms over the last decades. However, little research has focused on the investigation of vulnerability and adaptation to climate-related risks in Pakistan. Against this backdrop, this article investigates the farm level risk perceptions and different aspects of vulnerability to climate change including sensitivity and adaptive capacity at farm level in Pakistan. We interviewed a total of 450 farming households through structured questionnaires in three districts of Punjab province of Pakistan. This study identified a number of climate-related risks perceived by farm households such as extreme temperature events, insect attacks, animal diseases and crop pests. Limited water availability, high levels of poverty and a weak role of local government in providing proper infrastructure were the factors that make farmers more sensitive to climate-related risks. Uncertainty or reduction in crop and livestock yields; changed cropping calendars and water shortage were the major adverse impacts of climate-related risks reported by farmers in the study districts. Better crop production was reported as the only positive effect. Further, this study identified a number of farm level adaptation methods employed by farm households that include changes in crop variety, crop types, planting dates and input mix, depending upon the nature of the climate-related risks. Lack of resources, limited information, lack of finances and institutional support were some constraints that limit the adaptive capacity of farm households. This study also reveals a positive role of cooperation and negative role of conflict in the adaptation process. The study suggests to address the constraints to adaptation and to improve farm level cooperation through extended outreach and distribution of institutional services, particularly climate-specific farm advisory services.

Direct and indirect effects of wastewater use and herd environment on the occurrence of animal diseases and animal health in Pakistan

The use of wastewater for rearing domestic animals is a common phenomenon in most of the developing countries like Pakistan that face a serious shortage of freshwater resources. However, most of the literature has only focused on the indirect effects of wastewater use on animal health or productivity, and literature on the direct effects of wastewater use is rare. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the direct and indirect effects of wastewater usage on the prevalence of animal diseases and animal health in Pakistan. The study is based on a household-level survey of 360 domestic water buffalo herds collected from 12 districts of Punjab Province, Pakistan. We tested the prevalence of the animal’s diseases, animal’s health, and wastewater-use preference with various econometric tools, such as the Poisson, negative binomial, and logistic regressions. The findings of the study show that the majority of the farmers use wastewater for buffalo bathing due to the shortage of freshwater resources. Results explore the prevalence of diseases such as clinical mastitis, tick infestation, and foot and mouth disease at the farm level significantly associated with buffalo bathing in the wastewater. Moreover, bathing in wastewater pre- and post-milking also plays a role in the occurrence of diseases. Particularly, if the buffalo’s access to wastewater for bathing is within 60xa0min after milking, the probability of the animals being exposed to mastitis is higher. Furthermore, on investigation, a number of factors are found, such as the distance to the water source, power shortage, groundwater availability, and the education of farmers that influence farmers’ behavior of letting their animals take a bath in wastewater. Moreover, the use of different preventive measures improves the animal’s health.

Cotton production under risk: a simultaneous adoption of risk coping tools

Agricultural production explicitly involves dealing with multiple risks, often simultaneously, and applying risk management strategies contemporaneously. However, farmers’ behavior of concurrent adoption of multiple risk management tools was ignored in previous studies and formed the rationale for this research. This study was designed to assess the effect of socioeconomic factors, farmers’ risk perceptions, the production management technologies, and access to information and credit on the adoption of price, climate, biological, and financial risk management strategies. The potential for simultaneous adoption of these strategies was also hypothesized and evaluated. Allowing for prospective correlation between the risk management strategies, a multivariate probit model was used on 302 randomly selected cotton farmers from Punjab province of Pakistan using multistage random sampling. The research findings established the simultaneous adoption of the four risk management strategies and that the adoption of one strategy encourages the farmer to adopt other strategy(ies). Significant factors in the adoption of various risk management strategies were found to be education, farming experience, land ownership, farmers’ risk perceptions, the production management technologies, information access and credit access. The improvements in information access through quality extension services from the government and provision of alternative risk management options, including Crop Loan Insurance Scheme, are crucial to assist farmers in managing risks at farm level.

Farmer Perceptions of Climate Change, Observed Trends and Adaptation of Agriculture in Pakistan

Farmers’ willingness and ability to adapt agricultural systems depend on their knowledge about changes in climate and perceived risks of extreme events. Using cross-sectional data of 450 farmers collected from three agro-ecological zones of Punjab, Pakistan, this study investigates farmer perceptions of climate change and their agreement with observed climatic trends. In addition, this study explores the correlation between different adaptation stages (perceptions, intentions, and adaptation) and their key drivers using a Multivariate Probit Model. This study also explores the adaptation measures adopted by farmers. The results of the study show that the perceptions of increasing mean temperature match well with locally recorded data. However, a discrepancy is found in some cases between farmer perceptions of rainfall changes and local climate records. Moreover, education, experience, land tenure, land holdings, extension, cooperation, access to weather forecasting, and marketing information are the factors influencing the three adaptation stages. A strong association is found among the three adaptation stages. Particularly, the study confirms the hypothesis that accurate perceptions lead to stronger adaptation intentions compared to underestimated or no perceptions. Further, farmers prefer basic adaptation measures including changing crop varieties, input use and planting dates over advanced measures, such as planting shade trees, soil conservation, and crop diversification. The study recommends providing farmers, especially small landholders and tenants, easy access to information, institutional services and training on the use of advanced measures to reduce negative impacts of climate change at the farm level.

Effect of different levels of nitrogen and severity of pruning on growth, yield and quality of Phalsa (Grevia subinaequalis L.)

The experiments were conducted to study the effect of different levels of nitrogen and severity of pruning on growth, yield and quality of Phalsa (Grevia subinaequalis L.). The pruning level at 90 cm (P4) had significantly maximum number of canes (13.66), number of sprouted shoots/cane (29.29), number of fruiting/nodes/shoot (29.29), number of fruits/node (9.18) and number of fruits/bush (4327.28), respectively which ultimately leads to maximum fruit weight (0.59 g), fruit yield/bush (4.25 kg) and fruit yield/hectare (80.5 kg). Moreover, total soluble solids (16.17°Brix), acidity (2.86%) and total sugars (11.22) were also recorded high in light pruning (P4). Regardless of severity of pruning, application of nitrogen at 100 g/bush showed significantly maximum number of cane bush (11.08), number of sprouted shoots/cane (23.91), number of fruiting nodes/shoot (23.88), number of fruits/node (8.36), number of fruits/bush (6371), fruit weight/bush (0.579 g), fruit yield/bush (3.61 kg) and fruit yield (6080.8) whereas minimum in respect to all parameters were recorded in P1 level of pruning (ground level).