Abstract:
Climate change has a profound and prominent impact on the agricultural growth and water availability around the globe. Fresh water is a finite natural resource in the world but the non-sustainable methods of using water is depleting this natural resource and moving the world towards an era of water scarcity. Globally, in the mountainous ranges agriculture is an important source to ensure food security, where the glaciers melt water is mostly used for irrigation purposes. With changes in temperature and increasing climatic vulnerabilities the agriculture sector is affecting, causing severe food insecurity in the region. The indigenous people of Gilgit–Baltistan, in the Himalayan ranges are using an old technique of glacier grafting/growing to adapt the climate induced food insecurity by using water from the manmade glaciers for irrigation purposes. Thus, this study (using both secondary and primary data) has explored the technique of glacier grafting and its importance for the people of Gilgit-Baltistan to ensure water security. This study has also tried to find how local people are securing their agricultural livelihood through glacier grafting. It was found that 77% of the local people agreed that due to the grafted glacier, irrigation water in the streams has increased, 81% respondent agreed that the agriculture related activities in the village have increased and also intake of major food crops has increased. Among the respondents, 92% agreed that glacier grafting saves the generation from water scarcity and 87% respondent agreed that the growing of glaciers is limiting competition over use of water. Furthermore, 80% of the population observed that after the grafted glacier, women in the villages are getting an easy access to water as they are responsible to fetch water for the household while before the grafted glacier; they used to collect water from a distance. After analysing the data on SPSS it was found that the grafted glaciers are nourishing many of the leading waterways in Northern areas of Pakistan. It is concluded that glacier grafting is an important activity in the villages of Gilgit-Baltistan which is helping/supporting to achieve the one of the SDG’s objective of water and food for all. It is recommended to graft more glaciers in suitable areas to counter climate change and to increase water bodies in Pakistan to minimize the threats of water shortage by 2025.
