Will KP farmers quit wheat cultivation now that climate change is threatening crop?
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's southern region, wheat yields are adversely being influenced by climate change. An increase in temperature is not only affecting wheat production but has also forced many farmers to abandon sowing the crop altogether.
Wheat is an important strategic agricultural commodity and contributes to about 2.2% of the country's total GDP.
And while wheat is grown on a large-scale in the province, 67% of the land on which wheat is cultivated is a rain-fed area — which means its yield entirely depend on timely and adequate rainfall.
But in a country where farming is mostly dependent on the regularity of rainfall, agronomists predict that by the end of the century, the temperature and precipitation required for the sowing of wheat and maize crops will cross the 'optimal temperature limits', posing serious problems for the production of the two major food crops.
Subsequently, the livelihood of farmers, particularly small-scale farmers associated with the production of wheat, is at risk of being endangered.