As the sunrays bath village Mohib Banda in Nowshera district, Hussain Ali (28) – a poor farmer starts his tractor to level his farmland after it turned bumpy by the recent heavy torrential rains and flash floods in River Kabul.
Awakened early in the morning, Hussain after checking diesel in a tractor moved towards his agriculture fields that were rendered uncultivable by the gushing water in River Kabul and became busy in its leveling. “First the 2010 and 2022 devastative floods generated from Swat, Dir and Chitral in River Kabul, had swallowed my two acre lands and now the recent flash flood made my five acres land unproductive,” said Hussain with sobbing eyes, fearing of less wheat production this year after his crop was inundated by the flood water.
“Land degradation and desertification mostly caused by climate change-weather patterns emerged as big challenge before regional countries including Pakistan and it was the collective duty of developed countries to financially support countries which are highly susceptible to the climate change and desertification,” said Diyar Khan, project director, billion trees project while talking to APP.
Declaring land degradation is a growing threat to food security to regional countries including Pakistan, he said that every year it make around six million hectares land unproductive and cause about USD 42 billion economic losses globally that may lead to starvation and hunger due to water scarcity in next few decades if not controlled properly. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) report revealed that more than 3.2 billion people, or two in every five, are affected by land degradation and desertification and up to 143 million could move within their countries by 2050 to escape water scarcity and falling crop productivity mainly caused by climate change.
Also, UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) disclosed that the planet would reach a 1.5C increase in temperatures by 2030, leading to extreme drought, food shortage and floods.
Diyar Khan said about 45 percent of food consumed globally comes from the world’s drylands and falling of agriculture productivity, food shortages and water scarcity in South Asia were likely to create food insecurity and warned that about 20 percent more productive land were likely to be degraded in South Asia in next few decades if desertification and floods were not controlled. Professor Dr Muhammad Nafees of Environmental Sciences Department, University of Peshawar said that Pakistan was among 110 countries in the world where about two-third of agricultural land and around 80 percent of arid and semi-arid lands affected by land-degradation, desertification and drought.
He said Pakistan’s population was increasing with over two percent growth rate that started exerting pressure on agriculture, houses and other socioeconomic sectors. He feared that thte country might face food’s insecurity challenges in next few decades if the existing population was not controlled and climate change issue was not addressed.
The Sustainable Land Management Program (SLMP-Phase II), a project of Ministry of Climate Change revealed that around 1.5 to 2.5 million hectares of irrigated land, 3.5 to 4 million hectares of rain-fed agricultural, and 35 million hectares of rangelands were either becoming barren or non-productive due to desertification, land degradation and drought per year. The underground water resources in the western dry mountains of Sindh and Balochistan are shrinking due to heavy exploitation of aquifer without any natural recharge besides excessive car washing pumping.
Dr Nafees said the lowing laying areas in Balochistan, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab located directly on banks of rivers were facing increased problems of land degradation due to climate change impacts, floods, improper land use practices, over-grazing, deforestation and excessive removal of vegetation for fuel.
He said damages of land degradation and desertification could be seen in Swabi, Mardan and Nowshera districts on Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway and Kohat, Karak, Lakki Marwat and DI Khan districts on Indus Highway where trees were uprooted.
“The unlawful cuttings of forests by local communities for domestic consumption, timber mafia and conversion of agriculture land into residential colonies have aggravated the problem of desertification and land degradation in KP,” he added.
He said the rate of deforestation in national level was about 27,000 hectare per year especially in community owned natural forests of KP and Gilgit-Baltistan resulting an increase in dry-land areas and conversion of agricultural lands into deserts.
To combat desertification, land degradation and drought, the federal government has launched SLMP Phase-I in nine dry-land districts of Pakistan where over 12,000 hectares of degraded rangeland were rehabilitated though reseeding and community based restoration of the grazing management system.
Similarly, around 8,000 hectares of additional land were brought under sustainable rain-fed agriculture and water conservation measures. Following successful implementation of SLMP Phase-I, the project was later extended to 14 desertification prone districts under SLMP Phase-II in 2015 to protect the fertile land from being converted into deserts.
The project was implemented in high desertification and land degradation prone areas of Chakwal, Bhakkar, Khushab, Layyah in Punjab, Tharparkar, Omarkot, Sanghar in Sindh, DI Khan, Lakki Marwat in KP, Pashin, Kila Saifullah, Mastung, Katch and Lasbella in Balochistan.
Project Director, billion trees project said to counter land degradation, desertification and drought on basis of scientific management, KP’s first Range Management Policy “REDD+” (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) strategy and Green Growth Initiative (GGI) was implemented, which are showing tangible results.