ABSTRACT
The world population is growing at a high rate and feeding it is the challenge of the day, which will gain in intensity in the near future. Worldwide, 870 million people currently live in hunger, mostly in Asia and Africa. There have already been noticeable effects due to climate change (CC) on the environment in the form of the melting of glaciers, breakage of lakes, and variations in biodiversity. So, the global detrimental effects which have been predicted by scientists about CC are proven. Scientists have also predicted that the CC chiefly based on greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) produced by human activity will have more globally detrimental effects in the future. It has now become overwhelmingly convincing that the CC is going to affect primarily the poor nations. These regions are also identified as CC “hotspots” with low food production/security and are prone to high climatic stresses. In Pakistan, the agriculture and livestock sectors are growing rapidly, that is, 3.5% and 4.0%, respectively during the year 2016–2017 as per Pakistan's Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan; however, these sectors are most certain to be impacted by CC due to their heavy dependence on natural resources. There are at least two ways through which agriculture and livestock may be influenced by the prospective CC; first, agriculture and livestock sectors are highly sensitive to climate as changes can adversely affecting productivity. Increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration will be basically beneficial for plant growth but will also increase earth temperatures, which may limit plant growth and development. Second, the agriculture and livestock sectors may have an important role in reducing global warming through mitigation of GHGE and serving as a safety valve for resource-poor farmers, respectively. The impact of global CC can now be observed at the small scale in most parts of Pakistan. Most Pakistani farmers are dealing with climate vulnerability, climate shift, climate shocks, water stresses, and unsustainable production for over a decade now. Sheep and goat are comparatively resilient and have the capacity to tolerate temperature shifts as compared to larger ruminants and crops. Production losses in crops, livestock, and poultry can directly influence the economic status of the small holder farming community in terms of income generation. Pakistan has a tiny contribution in the total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which is less than 1% the lowest in the world, but it is among the countries most vulnerable to CC, and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts.
