Khalid Mushtaq

Increasing population and augmented demand for food have put burden on water resources, crops, and livestock for future sustainability. Pakistan is facing difficulties of water shortage, low crops and livestock productivity, meagre livelihood, and intensive food insecurity. Hence, this study was conducted in Pakistan to explore the nexus of climate change, irrigation water, agriculture, rural livelihoods, and food security. The study is based on primary data of 1080 farmers gathered from 12 districts of the rice–wheat and cotton-wheat cropping systems. A partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to compute the nexus. Findings of path analysis indicated that climate change had a significant negative impact on irrigation water, crops, livestock, rural livelihood, and food security in both cropping systems. There was positive relationship between surface water and crops. In addition, groundwater and crops were also positively and significantly correlated. The impact of crop was positive and significant on rural livelihood and food security. Furthermore, rural livelihood and food security were positively and significantly influenced by livestock. Moreover, there was positive relationship between rural livelihood and food security. The cotton-wheat cropping system was more affected by climatic and natural hazards than rice–wheat cropping system. Interconnectivity among nexus components and their contribution to rural livelihood and food security indicate that government, policymakers, and other concerned stakeholders should effectively improve food security policies under climatic and natural hazards. Moreover, it helps in examining adverse impacts of hazards induced by climate change on nexus components, leading to the designing and adoption of sustainable climate change policies. The study’s originality lies in its ability to provide a inclusive and integrated pathway of the interconnections and interdependencies among these variables, identifying key drivers of food insecurity in Pakistan. Moreover, outcome of the study has policy implications for developing sustainable policies and strategies to improve sustainable food security in the country.

Due to global and regional climatic dynamics for a couple of decades, agricultural productivity, rural livelihood, and food security have been badly affected in Pakistan. This study was conducted in Punjab, Pakistan, to explore the farmers’ understanding of the impacts of climate change, adaptation strategies, determinants, and benefits on agriculture using data from 1080 respondents. Perceived risks by the farmers in the rice-wheat cropping system and the cotton-wheat cropping system were weed infestation, seed rate augmented, low-quality seeds, infestation of crop diseases and pests, change of cropping pattern, increase of input use, decrease of cropping intensity and productivity, decreasing soil fertility, increasing irrigation frequency, and increase of harvesting time. To alleviate the adverse influences of climate change, the adaptation strategies used by farmers were management of crop and variety, soil and irrigation water, diversification of agriculture production systems and livelihood sources, management of fertilizer and farm operations time, spatial adaptation, access to risk reduction measures and financial assets, adoption of new technologies, institutional support, and indigenous knowledge. Moreover, the results of Binary Logistic Regression indicate that adaptation strategies are affected by different factors like age, education, household family size, off-farm income, remittances, credit access, information on climatic and natural hazards, information on weather forecasting, land acreage, the experience of growing crops and rearing of livestock, tenancy status, tube well ownership, livestock inventory, access to market information, agricultural extension services, and distance from agricultural input/output market. There is a significant difference between adapters and nonadapters. The risk management system may be created to protect crops against failures caused by extreme weather events. There is a need to develop crop varieties that are both high yielding and resistant to climate change. Moreover, cropping patterns should be revised to combat the effects of climate change. To enhance farmers’ standard of living, it is necessary to provide adequate extension services and a more significant number of investment facilities. These measures will assist farmers in maintaining their standard of living and food security over the long term to adapt to the effects of climate change based on various cropping zones.

In the face of declining water resources and low agricultural water productivity, it is vital to increase agricultural production efficiency and efficiency of water usage. The efficacy of irrigating rice fields in Nigeria is evaluated here using a stochastic frontier analysis. This is a parametric frontier that is assumed to have half-normal distribution, allowing the model to be separated from normal errors in a composite error model. Samples of 382 surveys were used in the study; out of the total number, 361 surveys were retrieved and used for the analysis. The analytical tools used in the study are: gross margin, water productivity analysis, and stochastic frontier approach. The results indicate an average yield of 4.69 and 4.94 tons/hectare, and net farm income of $415 and $364 for the farmers using canal irrigation and farmers using tube wells, respectively. The results also showed physical and economic water productivity of 0.51 kg/m³ and $0.11/m³ for canal water users, and 0.568 kg/m³ and $0.10/m³ for tube well users. The canal water users had a mean irrigation water use efficiency of 0.76, compared to 0.70 for the tube well users. The study recommends that effective extension services and their coverage be enhanced to provide adequate training to rice farmers on water use efficiency and the transfer of innovations and farming technologies to farmers.

Rising food security and safety concerns in developing countries have highlighted the importance of establishing efficient and dependable food distribution systems, which necessitate a thorough understanding of consumers and their needs. Thus, this study unravels consumer segments, their preferences, and socio-economic composition so that stakeholders in Pakistan’s mandarin (locally known as Kinnow) industry can improve their practices and supply consumers’ desired quality. Primary data were collected through an intercept survey of 540 mandarin consumers in four major cities of Pakistan. Collected data were subjected to hierarchical cluster analysis, Mean ANOVA, and Post-Hoc tests for consumer segmentation and profiling. The study classified consumers into three groups: ‘value seekers’ (45.74%), ‘Kinnow lovers’ (26.85%), and ‘perfectionists’ (27.41%) related to their choice of various attributes of fresh mandarin fruits. The three segments significantly differed in their preferences for quality attributes, consumption and purchase preferences, and socio-economic composition. The study highlights the implications of understanding consumer preferences and market segmentation for private and public stakeholders in the mandarin industry. The existence of consumer segments with distinct quality preferences urges value chain actors to upgrade and align their practices with consumer requirements. The study findings provide insights for deciding relevant crop/cultivar mix with due consideration to geographically distinct consumer segments and land suitability. The findings may also be useful to relevant public-sector institutions in developing policies and programs for the development of the horticultural industries in Pakistan.

This study aimed to determine the farmers’ perceived impact of climate change on irrigation water and the adaptation measure adopted to mitigate its adverse effects. A binary logistic regression model was used to identified factors affecting the selection of adaptation measures. Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to compute the benefits of adaptation strategies. The study was conducted in two major cropping systems, i.e., the Cotton Wheat Cropping System (CWCS) and Rice Wheat Cropping System (RWCS) of Punjab, Pakistan, using primary data of 1080 farmers collected through a multistage sampling technique. Due to climate change there was deterioration in surface water and groundwater quality in CWCS than in RWCS. The farmer uses different adaptation strategies like water harvesting, crop diversification, increasing use of irrigation, laser land leveling to save water, making ridges, building a water harvesting scheme, changing irrigation time, high-efficiency irrigation system and water-saving technologies. Adaptation strategies used by farmer were affected by different socioeconomic, demographic and agronomic factors. Results of the binary logistic regression showed that age, farming experience, education, household size, farm size, tenancy status of owner, access to farm credit, information on weather forecasting, soil quality, tube well ownership, remittances, off-farm income, agricultural extension services provided for irrigation water, and information on climatic and natural hazards played a significant role in the selection of adaptation strategies for irrigation water. Results of PLS-SEM showed that adaptation strategies mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on irrigation water. Farmers’ awareness regarding the impact of climatic variability on irrigation water should be enhanced. Availability of credit to farmers should be improved on easy terms to facilitate the adoption of interventions for better irrigation water management. It is high time for policymakers to design effective, affordable, and workable policies to mitigate climate change vulnerabilities against irrigation water to improve the wellbeing of the farmers.