News stories for Sara Mehmood

Stories by Sara Mehmood Agriculture: Making home vegetable gardening work A self-sustaining, market-driven home gardening model could improve access to vegetables Environmentalists warn against solar tubewells Lower cost of pumping water could lead to indiscriminate groundwater extraction, leading to its overexploitation. Solar tubewells — a double-edged sword Lower cost of pumping water could lead to indiscriminate groundwater extraction, leading to its overexploitation. Harvesting rainwater for agriculture We need a strategy to minimise runoff over roads and use it to replenish our overstressed groundwater reserves. Importance of farm mechanisation Farmers will have no other option but to increase mechanisation to cope with the adverse effects of climate change. Upskilling farm workers With greater use of technology, the sector is becoming more capital-intensive, inevitably demanding trained labour. Agriculture: Food security through climate-smart agriculture In Pakistan, a clear consensus does exist amongst relevant stakeholders for making necessary changes to the agriculture system. The challenge of shrinking farm sizes In Pakistan, the average farm size has steadily declined from 5.3 hectares in 1971 to 2.6 hectares in 2010 Why is Pakistan's food security so precarious? In 1961, per capita arable land availability was 0.66 hectares, which has now drastically decreased to 0.14 hectares. Urban kitchen gardening Its widespread adoption may help achieve food self-sufficiency and encourage a more sustainable lifestyle. Agriculture's declining contribution to smog Pakistan produces around 14m tonnes of biomass from rice crops, most of which is burnt Groundwater export Pakistan's water consumption per unit of GDP is the world's highest because of water-intensive industries Crop-switching for conservation Opting for the sesame crop over rice is a climate change adaption strategy for resource-poor farmers in our water-scarce country