Barriers in Adopting Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs) under Changing Climate in Balochistan, Pakistan

Abstract

Climate change is vital issue hindering sustainable agriculture development and adjustments in farming practices. Conventional agriculture practices often lead to environmental degradation, ground water depletion, financial issues and even social conflicts.The population of the Globe is experiencing increased temperatures, low rainfall patterns with scarcity of water availability and drought persistence due to climate change. This article, thus, focuses on the challenges of adoption of sustainable agriculture practices (SAPs) in the water-scarce, drought-prone province of Pakistan. Data was collected from 164 farmers by semi-structured questionnaire following multistage clustering sampling and empirically analyzed through Binary Logistic Regression Model. The results of the study elucidated that farmers’ education, their risk-taking behavior, participation in training, limited availability and high cost of agricultural land, inherited system of irrigation, and access to agricultural credit as the main barriers in adopting SAPs. The study recommends expansion of knowledge, planning, financial assistants from related institutes, proper training by the agriculture department, and policy intervention to cope with these barriers that hold back the adoption of SAPs. The Government needs to develop sustainable adaptive strategies for minimizing the adverse impacts of climate change on agriculture by on-farm demonstrations in the field thereby saving depleting water resources and encourage farmers to adopt sustainable agricultural practices.