ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Climate Change Mushahidullah Khan has said that climate change is also impacting Pakistan rapidly and the government is taking measures to cope with the situation acting on the recommendations of National Climate Change Policy of Pakistan.
He said that the changing weather pattern is affecting the country’s glaciers, rivers flows, underground water recharge systems, agriculture and overall biodiversity.
The minister, in a statement, warned that global warming would exacerbate land degradation and desertification in countries like Pakistan, where over 80 per cent of the land was arid. He said that developing and introducing regulatory mechanisms to manage and store summer water overflows and construction of new reservoirs of varying sizes was critical for making irrigated and rain-fed agriculture climate-resilient.
Mushahidullah said that there is also serious need for encouraging farmers to adopt high irrigation efficiency systems, methods and techniques on farm which will require policy interventions by the departments concerned, including Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, he emphasised.
