Pathway analysis of food security by employing climate change, water, and agriculture nexus in Pakistan: partial least square structural equation modeling.

Increasing population and augmented demand for food have put burden on water resources, crops, and livestock for future sustainability. Pakistan is facing difficulties of water shortage, low crops and livestock productivity, meagre livelihood, and intensive food insecurity. Hence, this study was conducted in Pakistan to explore the nexus of climate change, irrigation water, agriculture, rural livelihoods, and food security. The study is based on primary data of 1080 farmers gathered from 12 districts of the rice-wheat and cotton-wheat cropping systems. A partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to compute the nexus. Findings of path analysis indicated that climate change had a significant negative impact on irrigation water, crops, livestock, rural livelihood, and food security in both cropping systems. There was positive relationship between surface water and crops. In addition, groundwater and crops were also positively and significantly correlated. The impact of crop was positive and significant on rural livelihood and food security. Furthermore, rural livelihood and food security were positively and significantly influenced by livestock. Moreover, there was positive relationship between rural livelihood and food security. The cotton-wheat cropping system was more affected by climatic and natural hazards than rice-wheat cropping system. Interconnectivity among nexus components and their contribution to rural livelihood and food security indicate that government, policymakers, and other concerned stakeholders should effectively improve food security policies under climatic and natural hazards. Moreover, it helps in examining adverse impacts of hazards induced by climate change on nexus components, leading to the designing and adoption of sustainable climate change policies. The study's originality lies in its ability to provide a inclusive and integrated pathway of the interconnections and interdependencies among these variables, identifying key drivers of food insecurity in Pakistan. Moreover, outcome of the study has policy implications for developing sustainable policies and strategies to improve sustainable food security in the country.

Climate change and livestock herders wellbeing in Pakistan: Does nexus of risk perception, adaptation and their drivers matter?

Rural people, particularly in developing nations, rely on livestock as a key source of income. In Pakistan, rural people depend profoundly on buffalo, cows, sheep, and goats to earn their livelihood. The systems of agricultural production are at risk because of the negative effects of climate change. It badly affects production and quality of milk and meat, animal health, productivity, breeding, feed, and rangelands of livestock production. Climate change risks assessment and adaptation are required to minimize losses from these effects, which are not just technical but also socioeconomically significant. Hence, based on data collected from 1080 livestock herders using a multistage sampling technique in Punjab, Pakistan this study aims to assess perceived impact of climate change on livestock production and to assess coping strategies. In addition, determinants of adaptation strategies and their effects on livestock production was also estimated. Binary Logistic Regression was used to identify the drivers of adaptation strategies. In addition, Multi Group Analysis (MGA) in Partial Least Squares Path Modelling (PLS-PM) was applied to compare adapter and non-adapter of climate change adaptation strategies. Findings indicated that there are spread of various diseases to livestock due to adverse effects of climatic variability. There was reduction in the availability of the livestock's feed. Moreover, competition of water and land resources of livestock was also increasing. Low production efficiency resulted in decline of milk yield and meat production. Likewise, mortality of livestock, increased in still births, reduction in reproductive performance, decline in animal fertility, longevity, and general fitness, decreased birthing rates, rises in age at foremost calving in beef cattle was also prevailing. There were different adaptation policies used by farmers to handle with climate change and these were influenced by several demographic, socioeconomic, and agronomic aspects. Findings indicated that nexus of risk perception, adaptation plans and their determinants are beneficial to reduce the consequences of climatic variability and it improve the wellbeing of the herders. Risk management system may be created to protect livestock against losses caused by extreme weather events by providing awareness regarding influence of climate change on livestock. Easy and cheaper credit should be provided to the farmers to manage with the vulnerabilities of climate change.

Do farmers' risk perception, adaptation strategies, and their determinants benefit towards climate change? Implications for agriculture sector of Punjab, Pakistan.

Due to global and regional climatic dynamics for a couple of decades, agricultural productivity, rural livelihood, and food security have been badly affected in Pakistan. This study was conducted in Punjab, Pakistan, to explore the farmers' understanding of the impacts of climate change, adaptation strategies, determinants, and benefits on agriculture using data from 1080 respondents. Perceived risks by the farmers in the rice-wheat cropping system and the cotton-wheat cropping system were weed infestation, seed rate augmented, low-quality seeds, infestation of crop diseases and pests, change of cropping pattern, increase of input use, decrease of cropping intensity and productivity, decreasing soil fertility, increasing irrigation frequency, and increase of harvesting time. To alleviate the adverse influences of climate change, the adaptation strategies used by farmers were management of crop and variety, soil and irrigation water, diversification of agriculture production systems and livelihood sources, management of fertilizer and farm operations time, spatial adaptation, access to risk reduction measures and financial assets, adoption of new technologies, institutional support, and indigenous knowledge. Moreover, the results of Binary Logistic Regression indicate that adaptation strategies are affected by different factors like age, education, household family size, off-farm income, remittances, credit access, information on climatic and natural hazards, information on weather forecasting, land acreage, the experience of growing crops and rearing of livestock, tenancy status, tube well ownership, livestock inventory, access to market information, agricultural extension services, and distance from agricultural input/output market. There is a significant difference between adapters and nonadapters. The risk management system may be created to protect crops against failures caused by extreme weather events. There is a need to develop crop varieties that are both high yielding and resistant to climate change. Moreover, cropping patterns should be revised to combat the effects of climate change. To enhance farmers' standard of living, it is necessary to provide adequate extension services and a more significant number of investment facilities. These measures will assist farmers in maintaining their standard of living and food security over the long term to adapt to the effects of climate change based on various cropping zones.

Modelling wellbeing of farmers by using nexus of climate change risk perception, adaptation strategies, and their drivers on irrigation water in Pakistan.

This study aimed to determine the farmers' perceived impact of climate change on irrigation water and the adaptation measure adopted to mitigate its adverse effects. A binary logistic regression model was used to identified factors affecting the selection of adaptation measures. Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to compute the benefits of adaptation strategies. The study was conducted in two major cropping systems, i.e., the Cotton Wheat Cropping System (CWCS) and Rice Wheat Cropping System (RWCS) of Punjab, Pakistan, using primary data of 1080 farmers collected through a multistage sampling technique. Due to climate change there was deterioration in surface water and groundwater quality in CWCS than in RWCS. The farmer uses different adaptation strategies like water harvesting, crop diversification, increasing use of irrigation, laser land leveling to save water, making ridges, building a water harvesting scheme, changing irrigation time, high-efficiency irrigation system and water-saving technologies. Adaptation strategies used by farmer were affected by different socioeconomic, demographic and agronomic factors. Results of the binary logistic regression showed that age, farming experience, education, household size, farm size, tenancy status of owner, access to farm credit, information on weather forecasting, soil quality, tube well ownership, remittances, off-farm income, agricultural extension services provided for irrigation water, and information on climatic and natural hazards played a significant role in the selection of adaptation strategies for irrigation water. Results of PLS-SEM showed that adaptation strategies mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on irrigation water. Farmers' awareness regarding the impact of climatic variability on irrigation water should be enhanced. Availability of credit to farmers should be improved on easy terms to facilitate the adoption of interventions for better irrigation water management. It is high time for policymakers to design effective, affordable, and workable policies to mitigate climate change vulnerabilities against irrigation water to improve the wellbeing of the farmers.

Does energy use and economic growth allow for environmental sustainability? An empirical analysis of Pakistan.

The rapid growth of environmental pollution and the destruction of eco-systems force every individual economy to focus on environmentally friendly economic development. This research explores economic growth, energy use, foreign direct investment, agriculture, industrialization, and urban population growth with environmental sustainability proxied as CO2 emissions from 1971 to 2018. Econometric methods are employed for different purposes as the unit root for the stationary check. ARDL determines the long-run relationship, while the Decoupling Index examines the growing speed of variables and CO2 emissions, and VECM has been used for short- and long-run causalities. The study's findings confirm the long-run impact of all environmental pollution variables as ECM-1 is negatively significant. The short-run causality test shows CO2 emissions because of economic growth (GDP = > CO2 ≠ GDP), energy use (ENU = > CO2 ≠ ENU), and foreign direct investment (FDI = > CO2 ≠ FDI) at a 1% level. In contrast, CO2 emissions are not the Granger cause of GDP, ENU, and FDI. Economic growth, energy use, and foreign direct investment will increase CO2 emission, not vice versa. The study findings suggest that governments should move toward adopting green technology by implementation of green fiscal policies.

The influence of energy consumption and economic growth on environmental degradation in BRICS countries: an application of the ARDL model and decoupling index.

The multi-dimensional pollutions in the earth zone due to the degradation of the environmental levels have been emerging as an urgent issue in the developing economies. The BRICS group of countries holds a unique position in the emerging economies, playing a leading role in reinforcing political power globally and domestically. This study examines the annual time series over the period of 1971-2017 for Brazil, India, China, and South Africa, and 1990-2017 for Russia, to explore the relationship between environmental quality and economic growth in correspondence with the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis as well as the Decoupling Index (DI). The presence of an EKC strongly supports any of the individualistic environmental determinants effected in the long run by Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), building linkage with the approach of the co-integration and the DI, which brings about economic growth as well as CO2 emission and environmental degradation simultaneously. A short-run relationship and presence of the EKC hypothesis are observed in Brazil, Russia, and India with 92%, while China's (55%) and South Africa's (79%) have a slower speed of adjustment to long-run equilibrium. This study concludes that economic expansion and environmental degradation are interrelated in the long run. Environment degradation (CO2 emission) can be eradicated by continuous economic growth, management of energy demands and energy crises, implementation of environmentally sustainable policies, application of green technologies for the use of natural resources, and controllability of urban population growth with immediate and effective actions.

The Behavioral Role of Digital Economy Adaptation in Sustainable Financial Literacy and Financial Inclusion.

The basic aim of this research was to investigate the impact of the behavioral biases on financial inclusion in Pakistan while considering the moderating effect of financial literacy in this relation, in the context of behavioral perspective. This study focused on the significant behavioral phenomenon, including self-control, optimism, herding, and loss aversion with a perspective of the digital economy. To test the proposed hypothesis, the primary data collection method was used. A structured questionnaire was designed to collect data from 102 individual households through the convenience sampling technique. SmartPLS was used to analyze collected data. This study found the negative impact of self-control, optimism, and herding on financial inclusion. In contrast, loss aversion contributes to the uplift of financial inclusion in Pakistan. Similarly, financial literacy proved to have a decreasing effect on financial inclusion because of religious concerns. The moderation effect of financial literacy was also significantly positive except for loss aversion. The behavioral phenomenon proved to have a significant impact on financial inclusion. This research shows that individual households who do not use developed technological services and products from formal financial inclusion can overcome the behavioral biases that hinder them from making informed financial decisions. This research work will significantly help households use financial services to improve their standard of living and overall long-term financial well-being. This research is essential because many households are not using bank services and have low financial knowledge in Pakistan. The key contribution of this research study is that it found the relation between behavioral factors and financial inclusion. Financial literacy also has a moderating effect on their relations.

Effect of green human resource management practices on organizational sustainability: the mediating role of environmental and employee performance.

The main purpose of research was to investigate the underlying strategies for enhancing "organizational sustainability" (OS). The study categorizes the existing literature, based on strategic choice theory and the attribution model, which reveals that green human resource management (GHRM) practices play a crucial role in environmental management and organizational sustainability. This study investigates the impact of GHRM practices including training and development, performance appraisal, and reward and compensation on organizational sustainability through the mediating role of environmental performance and employee performance. A survey questionnaire methodology was used for data collection; data were collected from 165 managerial personnel in the textile industrial sector of Pakistan. The findings of the study showed significant effects of GHRM practices, i.e. (training and development, performance appraisal, and reward and compensation), on Organizational Sustainability, Similarly, this study empirically investigates the distinct mediating role of environmental performance and employee's performance between GHRM practices and organizational sustainability. The study findings support the hypothesized model of mediation. The GHRM is an innovative idea in developing countries, and additional studies are needed to identify sustainability issues and evaluate the impacts of GHRM practices in the textile and manufacturing industries in Pakistan.