ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s farmers must be better informed to adopt climate-smart practices to reduce agricultural emissions, said the Director of Climate Change Program of a Pakistani NGO Potohar Organisation for Development Advocacy (PODA) and a former researcher of Beijing University of Agriculture, Dr Adnan Arshad.
According to a press release by PODA on Thursday, Dr Adnan Arshad is one of the top 130 worldwide climatologists who were invited to attend three days International Conference on “Zero Greenhouse Emission in High Productive Agriculture” held from May 3 to 5 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He further said that Pakistan’s existing production knowledge and technologies are a significant contributor to anthropogenic global warming and reducing agricultural emissions. Largely methane and nitrous oxide could play a significant role in climate change mitigation along with new and improved technologies and collaborative mechanisms. Moreover, ministries must pay attention to upscale the functioning through mapping and regular inventories of greenhouse gas emissions from all kinds of agricultural systems of the country, he added.
He said that greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture originate from livestock, manure, soils, land use and fossil fuels. He claimed that within a few years, agriculture will be the sector with the largest greenhouse gas emissions unless new production systems and technologies are introduced. He emphasized the need to build capacities of end-users mainly small farmers, particularly women and youth to improve understanding of how novel technologies and management of agricultural systems can lessen emissions at farm and landscape scales. He said the current heat waves in Pakistan and India are evidence of the high rate of GHGs trapping heat into the local climate.
According to a press release by PODA on Thursday, Dr Adnan Arshad is one of the top 130 worldwide climatologists who were invited to attend three days International Conference on “Zero Greenhouse Emission in High Productive Agriculture” held from May 3 to 5 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He further said that Pakistan’s existing production knowledge and technologies are a significant contributor to anthropogenic global warming and reducing agricultural emissions. Largely methane and nitrous oxide could play a significant role in climate change mitigation along with new and improved technologies and collaborative mechanisms. Moreover, ministries must pay attention to upscale the functioning through mapping and regular inventories of greenhouse gas emissions from all kinds of agricultural systems of the country, he added.
He said that greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture originate from livestock, manure, soils, land use and fossil fuels. He claimed that within a few years, agriculture will be the sector with the largest greenhouse gas emissions unless new production systems and technologies are introduced. He emphasized the need to build capacities of end-users mainly small farmers, particularly women and youth to improve understanding of how novel technologies and management of agricultural systems can lessen emissions at farm and landscape scales. He said the current heat waves in Pakistan and India are evidence of the high rate of GHGs trapping heat into the local climate.