THERE was a time when farmers knew what to expect from the sky. They sowed with the coming rains in mind and prepared for winter as the heat began to ease. The seasons had their uncertainties, but there was a pattern to them and people learnt to live by it. That pattern is becoming harder to trust. The heat arrives early and refuses to leave, the rain keeps its distance until it comes all at once. In Pakistan, where livelihoods depend on land, water and work under an open sky, this is not merely a change in the weather. It is another uncertainty imposed on people who can afford fewer and fewer of them.

The burden of extreme heat, like so much else in Pakistan, depends on where one stands. An office worker in Lahore can retreat indoors, a labourer, street vendor or traffic constable often cannot. For those who earn by the day, staying out of the heat may mean going without wages. The advice to remain indoors assumes a choice that many people simply do not have. Farmers face a similar uncertainty. They must decide when to sow, how to irrigate and what to plant, even as the weather becomes harder to predict. Add expensive fertilizer, electricity bills and mounting debt and one failed harvest can undo years of effort. A family may borrow again, sell its livestock or take a child out of school.........

© Pakistan Observer