FAISALABAD: Farmers cannot fight the will of Mother Nature so they have to do something on their own to minimise risks without any government support, says Tariq Khan, Multan-based farmer.

He says growers` future rely on a strong crop insurance programme as the vagaries of weather are changing the cultivation pattern rapidlymakingit difficult for them to maintain their production.

Most of the farmers lack or have a little nest egg to cover the cost of the damages inflicted by frequent windstorms. Crop insurance can enable the farmers to recoup much of their losses through insurance.

The government should launch the crop insurance coverage and other measures to save agriculture and growers from losses, growers say.

According to the Global Climate Risk Assessment Index report of 2017 developed by Germanwatch, Pakistan has ranked 7th among the 10 most effected countries.The Ministry of National Food Security and Research data show there was an increase of 1.7 per cent in wheat, 3.7% in sugarcane and 5.2% in maize while cotton and rice showed decline in production by 29% and 2.9% leaving a negative impact on overall agriculture performance during 2015-16.

Mr Khan said they were having sleepless nights and finding ways to protect their crops to avoid financial losses, he added.

The disaster uproots the crop and the growers as well and they can get back on their feet with an insurance cover.

Indian farmers have long been availing the insurance facility.

Mr Khan said one could check that recent windstorms in Punjab and Sindh had left a trail of destruction on mango growers, and the crop insurance cover would have save them from financial losses.

Governments over the world extend the f acility to farmers because of the changing weather patterns.

Mr Khan said they had been facing decline in the mango production due to vagaries of the weather and this yearPakistan would miss the export target of mango $100 million.

Other than mango, cotton is another cash crop facing production crisis for a couple of years, mainly due to climate change on the top.

A professor of agriculture from the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, says cotton farmers faced colossal financial losses due to low production while processing mills also spent millions of dollars on Indian cotton imports only to `fortify the Indian economy`.

Saeed Ghani, of Tandlianwala, says agriculture holds no guarantees, whether it is the weather or the prices, as farmers and ranchers often are operating at the mercy of something they can not control, adding that consumers have a stake, too: a safe, stable and affordable food supply.

Munir Ahmed has been attached with agriculture for years. He says when all government institutions admit that climate change is a major threat to Pakistan, then why the crop insurance policy is not being introduced to protect the f arming fraternity.

Average yields have either been stag-nant or declining over the time while the availability of water is another serious issue the farmers have been facing over the years.

He said crop insurance would help restore the confidence of the growers as they would avoid the need of liquid cash and emergency borrowing in case of any natural calamity. The insurance will also provide peace of mind to the troubled growers, he claimed.

MNA Khalida Mansoor, who is also the member of the National Assembly Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research, told Dawn that the federal government had been proposed to introduce the crop insurance scheme for the growers.

She said f armers were bearing the brunt of the rapidly changing weather, so the government had to help them out. She said more and more people were hesitating to adopt agriculture as occupation because of the hardships and lack of government support, however, she said the government was trying to support the farmers that would ultimately strengthen the agriculture sector.