Growing more rice 'unviable' in water-short Pakistan
Growing more rice 'unviable' in water-short Pakistan
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Thu, 10 Jul 2014 07:30 GMT
Author: Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio
GHOTIKI, Pakistan (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – In the northeast corner of Ghotki, a district in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, farmer Ali Usman switches on his diesel-powered pump to water his nine-hectare (22 acre) paddy rice field.
Until 2007, his fields were planted with cotton. But like many farmers in the district - the second largest cotton producing area in Sindh – he has switched to rice, convinced that it is more resilient to the country’s increasing flooding and erratic rains.
“I grew cotton for almost 45 years and reaped good profits from it. In the past the crop survived even drought-like conditions, poor rains or low irrigation supplies,” Usmani said.
But over the last decade, heavy rains have damaged his cotton, particularly when it was near harvest in October and November. Shifting to rice has helped, he said.
But experts worry that a large-scale shift to rice in southern Pakistan could ultimately be a failed adaptation to worsening climate impacts. The levels of underground aquifers that feed agricultural irrigation are dropping, as is the flow of the Indus River, a lifeline for Pakistan’s agriculture.
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http://www.trust.org/item/20140709103023-qga5e/
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