‘Join hands to tackle climate change impact’ UAF VC says phenomenon may push 100m more people into extreme poverty by 2030 From Our Correspondent FAISALABAD: The climate change could force additional 100 million people worldwide to live in extreme poverty by 2030, said UAF Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan. Speaking at the concluding session of a 5-day workshop ‘Climate changes resilient agriculture systems’ organised by the Centre for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, he said climate changes were destroying crops and productive assets in agricultural communities. He said the world temperatures would go up by 2 degree centigrade in coming decades which might result in the loss of human lives and livestock and reduction in crops yield. He said the glaciers were melting rapidly, causing floods while famine-like situation would emerge in the years to come. He urged researchers, farming community, governments, industry and other stakeholders to join hands to mitigate increasing impact of climate changes. The poor countries face the most risk as global warming worsens. Prof Dr Bashir Ahmad said the UN World Climate Changes Conference in Paris would come up with solutions and techniques to curb climate changes. He said the increasing world temperature would pose serious challenges for the mankind. He said the world population was increasing manifold and changing climate changes were destroying agricultural productivity. He said the USAID CAS-AFS was meant for providing innovative solutions to solve national and global challenges related to food, agriculture and environment through excellence in education, research, outreach and policy support. Asian Productivity Organisation secretary general Mari Amano, in his message, stressed the need for joint efforts to ensure sustainable agriculture amid climate changes. He said by 2050, the world population would touch 10 billion for which we have to provide food. Prof Dr Ashafq Ahmad Chattha said the rising temperature would further aggravate the situation. He said due to changing climate, the agriculture sector was facing various challenges, including new diseases, flooding etc. The situation demands a climate change - resilient agriculture, livestock, poultry, fisheries and aquaculture system to be put in place, he added. Dr Muhammad Saeed from Asian Productivity Organization said under the current circumstances, climate changes were a real threat to the lives of the people. He said such conferences were need of the hour to come up with variable solutions. Dr Kenen Peker from Turkey said steps were afoot to work together for climate resilient agriculture. He said climate impacts were affecting agriculture the most which was the key sector in developing countries. Dr Attachai Jintrawet gave presentation about seasonal rice yield forecast in Asia and the Pacific to handle climate variability. Dr Gracia Axel from USA said joint efforts on the part of governments, NGO, farming community, industry and other stakeholders would pave way for sustainable agriculture. National Productivity Organisation representative Rabia Jamil said most of the population was associated with agriculture sector and when agriculture was affected due to climate changes, it would increase poverty. So joint efforts are needed to fight the challenges, she remarked.
