Assessing farmers' perspectives on climate change for effective farm-level adaptation measures in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Agriculture is considered as the backbone of the economy of Pakistan. However, current changes in climate have been adversely affecting agricultural productivity. In this paper, perceived impacts of climate change on agriculture and adaptation towards it have been studied in Charsadda district (lowlands) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan through extensive field surveys, involving 116 farm households. Results have revealed that climate change factors including fluctuating temperature, evidence of yearly long droughts, and a steady shift in rainfall patterns have pressured the agriculture sector and livelihoods of the local peasants. The staggering floods of 2010 and 2011 in Pakistan have evidenced severe climatic changes in Pakistan. These countrywide floods have washed fertile soil in the study area that has directly contributed to losses in agricultural yield and increased vector-borne diseases in crops. The local farmers have commonly deployed adaptive measure such as crops diversification, changing fertilizer, and planting shaded trees to minimize the impacts of changes in climate. However, these adjustments measures are perceived as not appropriate for improving farm yield. Therefore, the study suggests that improved understanding of the climate change impacts and knowledge on adapting adequately will lead to no-regret adaptation. It will also help protecting farmer's lives and livelihoods and will boost their resilience towards changing climatic conditions. Graphical abstract .

Temperature dependence of one-dimensional hydrogen bonding in morpholinium hydrogen chloranilate studied by 35Cl nuclear quadrupole resonance and multi-temperature X-ray diffraction.

The temperature dependence of (35)Cl NQR frequencies and the spin-lattice relaxation times T(1) has been measured in the wide temperature range of 4.2-420 K for morpholinium hydrogen chloranilate in which a one-dimensional O-HO hydrogen-bonded molecular chain of hydrogen chloranilate ions is formed. An anomalous temperature dependence of the NQR frequencies was analyzed to deduce a drastic temperature variation of the electronic state of the hydrogen-bonded molecular chain. The hydrogen atom distribution in the OHO hydrogen bond is discussed from the results of NQR as well as multi-temperature X-ray diffraction. Above ca. 330 K, the T(1) showed a steep decrease with an activation energy of ca. 70 kJ mol(-1) and with an isotope ratio (37)Cl T(1)/(35)Cl T(1) = 0.97 ± 0.2. The orientational change of the z axis of electric field gradient tensor in conjunction with the hydrogen transfer between adjacent hydrogen chloranilate ions is suggested as a possible relaxation mechanism.