Kulsoom Bibi with some of her daughters outside her home in Layyah district

The harvesting of wheat usually takes place from April to May once the hot sun and dry weather have ripened the crop; but rainfall before harvesting time, as it has been seen this year in Southern Punjab can be devastating.

“It’s not just the heavy rainfall — there was a massive hailstorm in March which destroyed a lot of the wheat crop in eight to nine union councils, along with all the vegetables and chickpea (channa) the farmers had planted during the winter months,” says Memoona Sadaf, a social organiser who works with farming communities under the Doaba Foundation in Layyah district, Southern Punjab.

“The people have become very vulnerable — they even approached the local government to compensate them for the damaged crops, but so far there has been no response. Heavily indebted and with the crops destroyed, they cannot return the loans they took to farm the land. With no money at all, they can’t buy food and increased malnutrition impacts their health,” explains Sadaf. The erratic weather that the country’s farmers faced this spring is in keeping with what scientists tell us will happen with climate change.

The need for government initiatives becomes critical as climate change wreaks havoc on crops

According to Pakistan’s new Climate Change Policy, there is going to be “Considerable increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events”.

The Doaba Foun­dation is a member of the Indus Consortium which has launched a campaign called “GROW” which intends to build the knowledge base of both farmers and urban youth around the concept, causes, impacts and solutions of climate change. Indus Consortium has conducted a series of activities to spread awareness about climate change in targeted farming communities in Southern Punjab since last year. “Layyah district is particularly vulnerable because parts of it lie in the Thal Desert and the local farmers’ main cash crop is chickpea which is very sensitive to the weather. Unlike in the other fertile areas of the Punjab and Sindh, the people in Layyah have no other option but to grow chickpea in large quantities and when that is affected by hailstorms, they lose their main livelihood,” explains Aatif Afzal of the Indus Consortium whose mission is to work for local communities to enhance their resilience.

In Basti Dir Khan, Layyah District, located on fertile land near the Indus River, a small settlement of around 40 households is surrounded by green fields. The community organisation made by the Doaba Foundation in 2005 is already donating wheat to poor households in the village to make them food secure. “Here we only have enough land for our homes, which is usually around one kanal of land. If we want to grow crops, we have to take land on theka (contract) or work as labourers on others’ lands. We can only afford to cook two meals a day (mornings and evenings) and our children are severely malnourished,” says Kulsoom Bibi, a 45-year-old farmer with 10 daughters.

She says her husband, who is now 70 plus, is too old to do any kind of farming so she and her young daughters do all the work. Although there is a school in the village, she says all her daughters dropped out of formal education after Class 5. They own a cow and plant vegetables on the land adjacent to their neat and clean mud house. “We had planted vegetables like okra, zucchini and pumpkins for our own consumption and tried to grow fodder for our cow on the land but the hailstorm destroyed all the vegetables. Now the season to plant these vegetables has passed. I’m now scared to plant crops this coming season in case they are damaged by floods; the river is just 10km away and it often floods during monsoon season.” She says her family survives on charity; people donate food and clothing but sometimes they take loans. The loans are usually repaid when crops like wheat and sugar cane, grown in this part of Layyah District near the river, are sold after harvesting and she manages to earn some money as a labourer. “I still have to marry off four of my daughters,” she explains.

Climate change is exacting a heavy toll on small farmers like Kulsoom Bibi who say that unexpected rainfall, the long summer season and short but severe winters are impacting their vegetables and fodder crops. The “GROW” campaign that was launched last year in five villages of the area including Basti Dir Khan with the support of Oxfam, has conducted awareness sessions in the selected villages. The campaign aims to help small farmers, particularly women, by teaching them to become united to face the threat of climate change.

“I have learnt to get my soil tested and to ensure that I plant crops on time,” explains Mohammed Arif, a small farmer who has also learnt from the trainings conducted by the campaign. “The government should also help us address the challenge of climate change by making better policies. Our next generation needs to come out of poverty.” Although his wife’s kitchen garden was ruined by the recent hailstorm, his family of seven is planning to plant onions, green chillies and tomatoes in the near future and he is already preparing the land. He points out: “The seasons have become so severe — either the cold bites us or the summer heat burns us. Life is becoming very difficult.”

The Government of Pakistan is yet to put its National Climate Change Policy into action; the federal Ministry of Climate Change was only recently restored with Mushaidullah Khan as a full time minister at its helm. With farmers already suffering so much, the ministry should expedite the development of an operational Climate Change Policy.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, April 19th, 2015

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