5. Discussion
From the analysis it seems only three factors, rainfall, soil conditions, and irrigation, act as a hindrance to sugarcane production in Sindh (as the p-values are less than 0.05). Thep-values of other factors are greater than 0.05, which means they are not significant. The t-values of irrigation, rainfall, and soil condition are higher than 2.04, which are normally used as standard values. The other values are lower than 2.04, so they were rejected as null hypothesis. Climate change diseases was found null hypotheses which shows that in Sindh, farmers use pesticides to deal with crop diseases occurring due to change in the climate. Such pesticides are sold at higher prices,but this factor was not rated as significant by all farmers. In fact, thep-values and t-values show that irrigation, rainfall, and soil condition are positively related to the decrease in sugarcane production in Sindhthat’s why other factors are undiscussed. Other factors cannot be ignored, but this research aims to investigate the specific issues faced by sugarcane farmers in Sindh. Thus, only such factors that would helpin facilitating sugarcane farming in Sindh are considered for discussion. The sugarcane production situation is unsatisfactory and needs the current government of Pakistan to take urgent steps, otherwise things will get worse. Regarding irrigation, water is not adequate for sugarcane production due to poor infrastructure (such as tube wells) in the chosen areas (Qureshi 2011). Participants accepted that unavailability of water harms sugarcane production as the precipitation mechanism is affected. In Sindh, the rainfall was normalcompared to other regions of Pakistan.However,the rainfall percentage has decreasedof late which has compelled farmers to rely oncanal, ground and tube well water. In Sindh, precipitation accounts only for 20% of the overall sugarcane production requirements. The condition of the irrigation system is not satisfactory even though there are several development plans that have already been implemented (Qureshi 2011).
The current findings could assist public officials in addressing specific issues instead of covering an extensive list of climate change factors. Most of the farmers in Sindh use salt-rich water,which is detrimental to sugarcaneyield, and they use this water from the nearby drainage systems at least to moisturize the crops. Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA) is accused of unfair treatment to the farmers and,in some areas, irrigation problem is created because the irrigation department facilitate rich landowners by diverting the water from the canals (Land Degradation in Sindh, 2002).This allegation seems to be true to some extent.Farmers mostly pointed out that unavailability of water damages sugarcane yield to a great extent. Installation of tube well privately is way too expensive for any farmer.Since the government of Pakistan also earns through taxes and duties on sugarcane, itbecomes the responsibility of officials to install tube wells.
Drought was not considered to be a significant factor in this research, which means that canal water is available to the farmers. However, farmers still rely on tube wells that are not good for sugarcane yields due to the salinity and other detrimental properties of the groundwater. Canal water should be channeled appropriately and as the second alternative, which in reality is not suitable, is tube well installation. Most farmers have closed sugarcane production companies due to lack of water, as rainfall contributeslittle to the agriculture in Sindh. At present, new reservoirs need to be developed in the vicinity of areas that contribute to the production of sugarcane and use technologies that make groundwater suitable for sugarcane because groundwater is the only option left to the farmers in Sindh after canal water.Participants said that their sugarcane production has been severely affected due to less rainfall.
Intense heat is not a substantial factor in this research, but the increase in temperature means that sugarcanewould require more water as evaporation increases. Lack of rainfall affects sugarcane yields since water availability in Sindh is limited. Still, large-scale forestation can help reduce heatwaves in sugarcane production areas asdeforestation has affected the pattern of rainfall all over the world and which is one of the reasons for less and heavy rainfall, sometimes causing floods (Shakoor et al. 2011). Small-scale deforestation also affects the climate of specific region in small areas. (Dehlavi et al. 2015).In the Sindh region, forests must be grown near the sugarcane fields to maintain the average rainfall precipitation.
The soil condition of sugarcane production in Sindh was also considered unsatisfactory by the participants. Soil conditions are the primary factor that farmers consider when choosing the right land for a sugarcane crop. Salinity undermines the potential of the soil by depositing salt in the soil, which is reported to have been filed at 120 million tons each year in the soil of which only 20% goes back to the sea. Salinity is due to groundwater, as most farmers use tube wells as the main source of water, but the drainage system in rural areas is aninfluentialfactor for irrigation. Wastewater is absorbed into the ground from the drainage system and increases the level of underground water, which results in water logging. (Ur-Rehman et al. 2012).Also called over-irrigation, the deep water often reaches the surface. The drainage system needs to be given greater importance in at least those areas where sugarcane is grown on a large scale. The technical labs in Sindh, which provide technical assistance in evaluating the soil condition, do not necessarily help, but rather highlight soil problems. According to a study, every year 40,000 hectaresof fertile land becomes saline,of which a majority percentage belongs tothe Sindh region alone. Roughly 57% of Sindh has beenwaterlogged, which is a direct indication of the government’s inability of installing adequate and efficient drainage systems in rural areas. Practices of soil management are vital for making the soil fertile for sugarcaneproduction, which calls for serious government efforts to initiate programs to educate the farmers of Sindh to deal with challenges such as use of fertilizers.