
Publication details
- Friday | 29 Jun, 2018
- Kashif Majeed Salik, Muhammad Awais Umar, Ghamze Ali, Ayesha Qaisrani
- Contributed Chapter Series
- 39
Rabia Ayesha Qaisrani, Muhammad Awais Umar, Ghamz E Ali Siyal and Kashif Majeed Salik
Abstract
Rural livelihoods in semi-arid Pakistan are increasingly exposed to climate impacts such as rising temperatures, erratic
rainfalls and more intense and frequent climate-related extreme events. This is introducing new risks to the already vulnerable
and marginalised societies that lack development and have high poverty rates. This study uses the IPCC Livelihood
Vulnerability Index (LVI) approach to analyse the determinants of household livelihood vulnerability defning vulnerability
in terms of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. It also determines various adaptation responses that farmers apply
and elucidates the reasons why some farmers choose not to adapt to climate change. It focuses on three semi-arid districts
in Pakistan (Faisalabad, D.G. Khan and Mardan) and uses a sample of 150 rural agricultural households. As per the LVI
scores, D.G. Khan is the most vulnerable district to climate change impacts, followed by Mardan and Faisalabad, respectively.
Results show that (a lack of) adaptive capacity plays quite an important role in shaping households’ livelihood vulnerability
for any given degree of exposure and sensitivity. Besides lower exposure and sensitivity to climate change, extremely low
levels of adaptive capacity make Mardan more vulnerable to climate change compared to Faisalabad. The paper argues on
people-centric development for rural areas through strengthening of agriculture sector as well as providing rural household
opportunities for of-farm livelihoods