ISLAMABAD: The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has called on South Asian governments to revise the current climate adaptation policies across the region in response to the effects of climate change.

CIMMYT, in a new report, “Climate variability and yield risk in South Asia’s rice – wheat systems: emerging evidence from Pakistan” highlighted the important risks to farmers’ yields in Pakistan due to climate change.

The report finds that farmers have limited capacity to adapt to climatic changes within a crop season, and concluded that current climate change adaptation policies must be reviewed to increase resilience for Pakistan’s and South Asia’s cereal farmers, suggesting avenues for investment in improved crop research and development programmes.

Rice and wheat are the principal calorie sources for over a billion people in South Asia. Both of these crops are extremely sensitive to climate and agronomic management conditions under which they are grown.

Results confirm the risks of extreme weather - particularly temperature - and climatic variability on rice and wheat yields in Pakistan, using data collected under on-farm circumstances, while also accounting for farmers’ variable agronomic management practices.

The number of days that wheat exceeded season-long and flowering period thresholds for temperature stress had a significant negative effect on wheat yield, while also increasing deviation from the mean, indicative of production risk.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2016