ISLAMABAD, June 20: Agricultural scientists have asked Pakistan to stop its irrigation water from further wastage.

Globally, agriculture consumes 70 per cent of water withdrawals, but, in Pakistan it goes up to 95 per cent.

Speaking at a seminar on ‘Climate Change Impact, Adaptation and Mitigation’ the other day, agricultural scientists said climate change would increase water scarcity and demand for irrigation in many parts of the country. Higher energy prices will increase the cost of pumping water.

In Pakistan, areas that are inherently arid to hyper-arid in nature will be more arid due to reduced precipitation, increased temperature and evaporative demand.

Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) Chairman Dr M.E. Tusneem said climate change was affecting everyone but the worst-hit would be hundreds of millions of small farmers, fishermen and forest dependent people who were already vulnerable and food insecure. He said the same thing might happen in the case of Pakistan.

Agriculture, forestry and fisheries, he said, were central to the climate change and bio-energy debates. They caused climate change but they were also important agents of mitigation and adaptation. He said the use of bio-fuels as a solution to reduce carbon emissions and to become more independent from fossil fuels had crucial implications for food security as well as current and future land losses.

Dr Tusneem said climate change combined with the rising demand for bio-fuels produced from food crops reduced the availability of land, water and biodiversity for food production and affected food prices.

He said there was an urgent need to adopt better agriculture practices, to improve soil fertility and reduce land degradation.

Rector FAST University Dr Amir Mohammad and Head of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) cell in the Ministry of Environment Saadullah Ayaz also spoke on the occasion.