Agricultural Water Poverty Index: A Tool for Agricultural Water Resources Management in District Dir Lower, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Agricultural Water Poverty Index: A Tool for Agricultural Water Resources Management in District Dir Lower, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Khalid Hussain, Muhammad Jamal Nasir*, Anwar Saeed Khan and Hafiz Ullah Khan
ABSTRACT
Water resources play a key role in human health, human needs, well-being, and development. Despite its prominent importance, water resources are highly stressed in different parts of the globe, particularly the developing nations. High competition for water resources with an increase in population and their poor management led to water scarcity that ultimately badly threatened global food security. This study aims to identify the degree of agricultural water poverty and to propose a map of AWP in district Dir Lower, using GIS. The data of five major components of AWPI; resources, usage, capacity, access, and environment, and their sub-components were collected through a questionnaire survey including questions about all these parameters. In all 35 union councils (UCs) of the study area, 5 respondents from each union council were selected randomly and priority was given to long-time farmers. The data collected were tabulated and the maximum (Xmax) and minimum (Xmin) values for each sub-component of each major AWPI component were determined and, subsequently, the WPI was computed by combining all the sub-components of the five major components. UCs; Balambat, Chakdara, Kambat, Kotkai, Koto, Kotigram, Lajbok, Lal Qilla, and Ouch recorded very high agricultural water poverty with an overall AWPI rank of 5 each. The reason behind this low AWPI is the lack of water management knowledge, poor access to water resources, poor coping strategies, and lack of fertilizers and pesticides. On the other hand, union councils Hayaseri and Tormang were found with very low agricultural water poverty with an Overall AWPI Rank of 1 each. Out of 35 UCs of Dir Lower, 12 have moderate, 11 have high, 9 have very high, 1 has low and 2 UCs have very low AWPI. This study anticipates strengthening the concepts of agricultural water poverty to effectively alleviate the problem and achieve balanced regional development. The results and findings may prove useful to policymakers and implementing agencies.
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