The UN agency, (IFAD), has said that small farmers “do little to cause climate change, but suffer the
most from its impacts”. At a climate adaptation summit that starts today in the Netherlands, IFAD is set
to launch a new $500-million fund to tackle climate change affected food security and aid more than 10
million people with weather change impacts. The FAO has been over the years the FAO emphasizing the
need for cooperation between developing countries from the region in order to improve agricultural
outcomes and share experiences of fighting hunger. The need for agricultural collaboration should
ideally go together with the agenda of reducing poverty.
In Pakistan, the situation can get very dire very fast. The country in itself has also been facing food
security issues over the past few years, despite the fact that Pakistan is self-sufficient in major staple
foods. Apart from unemployment due to the pandemic, the fact that households in the country are not
food secure in a country which produces almost all of its food also means that the problems lie in the
mechanisms for distribution as well as the low rate of compensating rural labor. As per a survey by the
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), forty percent of Pakistani households are also facing moderate or
severe food insecurity in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
While around a quarter of Pakistan’s population lives below the poverty line, poverty is the worst in
rural areas. The question we need to be asking ourselves is why the areas that produce food are the
ones most affected by food insecurity. As one of the countries predicted to suffer the most due to
climate change, Pakistan should be operating on an emergency footing. This should include helping
small farmers who cannot even try to battle climate change effects without the aid of the state. We will
only overcome the worst effects of climate change with concerted global action but every country needs
to start doing its bit now. That is good and very necessary for farmers fund as they can play better role
for climate change as we are well aware that Pakistan agriculture situation is not good so government
should announce fund for farmers as they can play good role for economy and climate
