Climate chaos is threatening Pakistan’s food security. Can it adapt in time?
Scientists warn that the country’s ‘new normal’ of extreme heat, floods and erratic rainfall is pushing farms and supply chains to the brink
Experts told This Week in Asia that this growing unpredictability had already undermined crop yields over the past four years, posing an increasingly grave risk to Pakistan’s food security.
“This is not good news for Pakistan,” said Ali Mirchi, an associate professor of water resources engineering at Oklahoma State University, who has co-authored multiple studies on the changing hydrology of the Indus River basin.
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Pakistan monsoon floods kill more than 150
“The overall impact is more uncertainty for agricultural production and water security,” he said, with consequences that are “both immediate and long-term”.
Flash floods devastate standing crops and unleash “serious ripple effects for agrarian communities”, Mirchi said. Droughts, combined with shifting snowmelt patterns, further limit irrigation, placing additional pressures on agriculture.