RAWALPINDI, Aug 27: The country’s economy will be affected adversely due to decline in agri produce unless a sustained plan is prepared to counter the climatic change, said the minister in-charge for science and technology, Dr Attaur Rehman.

He was speaking at a workshop on Impact of climate change on agriculture at the Arid University of Agriculture here on Wednesday.

The country needs to develop ways for the better management of available water resources, the minister said, adding the government had already initiated the process through the construction of various dams.

He said one possible step could be the cultivation of stress-resistant crops, which required less water. The minister called upon the agri scientists to work on new varieties of crops for this purpose.

The climatic changes have been caused by human activities like burning of fossil fuels, he said and added that seven billion tons of carbon released annually, which had worsened the green house effect.

Earlier, Dr Khalid Mahmood Khan, the vice-chancellor of Arid University, said spells of high temperature, heavy rainfall, high winds and droughts had disrupted crop production.

The high death toll wrought by heatwave in France, melting of glaciers in Sweden, Forest fires in Canada and floods in China was at such a level that climatic change could easily be classified as Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD), he remarked. He also drew the US President’s attention to this WMD.

Such phenomenon, he maintained, was not the aftermath of sudden development but was the outcome of human lust and exploitation of natural resources and utilization of fossil fuels.

Dr Mahmud said the farmers’ ability to grow enough food largely hinged upon a stable climate. Any unpredictable change, as is being experienced now, needs a robust decision-making and application of developed production technologies, he said.

He stressed the need for looking into strategies like carbon-friendly farming, conservation tillage or no tillage, re- growth of native vegetations, reducing summer fallow and a climate-friendly livestock feed management, Dr Mahmud remarked.

Dr Amir Mohammad, the former Chairman, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, said changes in global climate were unpredictable and Pakistan was in dire need of appropriate intellectual and technological capability to meet the challenge.

“Agriculture was and would remain the most important sector of economy in Pakistan at least for the next decade or two. It was, however, deficient in social sciences, policy research and know- how about climate change and its future permutations, he cautioned.