Formal institutions' role in managing catastrophic risks in agriculture in Pakistan: Implications for effective risk governance

Abstract

Pakistan is counted among the world's most vulnerable nations impacted by climatic risks and catastrophes. Among various sectors, agriculture remains the worst-affected sector, threatening the subsistence of the millions of households associated with farming. Local institutions, being important stakeholders, have a pivotal role in shaping community resilience to catastrophes. While there is a growing emphasis on farm-level empirical studies, the institutional component of climate change research is still scarce. This study attempted to highlight the role of formal institutions, their effectiveness, and constraints in managing catastrophic risks in agriculture in Pakistan. The present investigation undertook 52 key informant interviews with the officeholders from 13 public sector agricultural institutions concerning agricultural vulnerability to catastrophic risks and institutional support to manage this risk. The survey data are analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. The study findings revealed that the institutions reported a higher level of agricultural vulnerability to climatic risks, with major impacts of biophysical and biological hazards. We found that institutions provide advisory, training, research, and financial services to support adaptation to erratic temperature and rainfall, droughts, and water scarcity and management of biological and financial risks. The findings further indicated that institutions' support is constrained by several factors, including insufficient financial resources, lack of machinery and hardware, administrative constraints, and lack of professional training and expertise. We recommend concerned ministries eliminate such shortfalls by allocating adequate funds, improving coordination between the relevant institutions, and providing technical training to employees so that institutions can continue to play their role in managing catastrophic risks at the farm level.