Paper short abstract:

Using interview data produced in the course of a large, comparative study of primary food producers, we examine local explanations for environmental change and some of the range of adaptations farmers have made in response to them.

Paper long abstract:

Pakistani Punjab is known as a fertile food producing area, however, not all regions are equally productive. In historically rainfed areas like parts of northern Punjab, agriculture has been transformed by the introduction of electric and diesel powered tubewell irrigation. This, along with global climate change, has resulted in dramatic changes to the local environment. Using interview data produced in the course of a large, comparative study of primary food producers, we examine local explanations for environmental change and some of the range of adaptations farmers have made in response to them. This is part of a larger, multi-sited study addressing the relationship between foundational cultural modules of nature and space and primary food production. In this paper we deal with agricultural peasant farmers in Attock District, Punjab, Pakistan. Farmers in this study agree that human induced climate change is a problem, but root this in the sexual morality of society rather than carbon consumption. The solutions to these problems are diverse, but include both practical changes to crops, creative energy production and usage and heightened recognition of the importance of religiosity. There appear to be clear generational breaks in causal explanations and appropriate responses. Younger farmers rely less on local saints and seek technological solutions, while older farmers invest in less innovative solutions and turn to traditional devotion to local saints.