Cropping systems employed by farmers in various parts of Pakistan are adversely affected by climatic factors such as delayed or late rainfall and windstorms induced by temperature changes, among others. Specifically, the latter half of crop production, which include the months of September and October, are affected by storms that lead to rice crop lodging. This does not only reduce yield, but also increases harvesting cost. Farmers feel particularly insecure during harvesting time, in October.

They are at risk and vulnerable as the result of a combination of factors that include the high likelihood of storms, high sunk costs and the potential severe impact on yields, potentially leading to a significant reduction in income. Crop varieties that are less sensitive to crop lodging would increase these farmers’ resilience to climate change during one of the most vulnerable times of the year.  

HI-AWARE lays emphasis on the temporal scale of vulnerability. The concept of critical moments is used to increase understanding regarding stress moments of vulnerable households in terms of timing, and climatic, socio-economic and other biophysical causes. Insight into these so-called critical moments can improve the tailoring and prioritisation of adaptation measures to increase resilience to climate change and variability. From 23–30 May 2016, a team of researchers from the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) and Alterra will carry out a critical moment assessment in Murree, Chakri, Talagang, in Pakistan’s Soan study area, through extensive consultation with communities, professionals, practitioners and policy makers.