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Pakistan faces water scarcity and high operational costs for traditional irrigation systems, hindering agricultural productivity. Solar-powered irrigation systems (SPIS) can potentially provide a sustainable and affordable solution, but face technical, financial and policy barriers to adoption. A comprehensive study is needed to examine feasibility and identify barriers. Therefore, a comprehensive review study is conducted to identify the potential for solar irrigation, key issues and challenges related to its implementation in Pakistan. The analysis is based on published studies, technical reports and a survey of solar-powered drip irrigation systems. The use of SPIS in Pakistan is becoming a cost-effective and sustainable option for irrigation, particularly in remote and off-grid areas. However, these systems also have their challenges, such as high initial costs, maintenance and repairs, limited access to spare parts, lack of government policies and regulations, lack of technical expertise, lack of financing options and social acceptance. The most pressing issue is the risk of groundwater exploitation by using SPIS. Based on the analysis of the energy and water situation in Pakistan, it is important to sustainably use both solar energy and groundwater resources, through the implementation of effective management strategies and policies. With the right policies and investment in research and development of SPIS and groundwater, farmers can benefit by increasing crop yields, conserving water resources, reducing the cost of energy, increasing productivity and improving the standard of living and access to electricity in remote and off-grid areas. It is recommended that the adoption of solar energy be promoted to run high efficiency irrigation systems (HEIS) with urgent capacity improvement among farmers, advisors and system installers to sustainably manage water resources in SPIS. This would not only help to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and associated environmental impacts, but also increase farmers' income and reduce their operational costs. Moreover, the use of SPIS can improve crop yields, leading to food security and poverty reduction. Thus, the government and policymakers should consider implementing policies and incentives to encourage the large-scale adoption of solar energy in the agricultural sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence suggests that undernutrition among children remain high in Pakistan. The aim of this systematic review of literature was to determine the prevalence of undernutrition and its factors associated with children under five years in Pakistan. A systematic review was carried out by using the most relevant published studies between 2000 to 2019 by different electronic databases searching engines, namely Science direct, PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, Embase and PsycINFO. The research articles consist child undernutrition related data in Pakistan were assessed. Searching key words were "under-nutrition", "malnutrition," "wasting," "stunting," "under 5 years," "Pakistan," "associated factors," "children,". A total of the 608 preliminarily retrieved articles, 14 were met with study included criteria. The most consistence emerging themes on child undernutrition literature review were; low birth spacing, low family income, child age group, gender, small birth size, early marriages, large family size, mother's education and lack of breastfeeding. There is a need for mixed method and qualitative studies to understand an insight into the factors associated with child undernutrition in Pakistan. To achieve a sustainable improvement, there is a need for community-based holistic multi-strategy method that targets the child undernutrition associated factors, therefore, the WHO global nutrition target to 2025 can also be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citrus is manually counted to estimate the yield. By using some innovative agricultural techniques yield and production can be increased. Numerous agricultural innovations have been introduced in recent years. Higher agricultural production, prediction, and reliable crop status information are more important than ever due to the expected growth of the human population. Agriculture has always been the foundation of human society. Current study was aimed to develop a reliable and meaningful information-gathering agricultural field based on image processing during 2020. Citrus yield can be increased in the initial stages by counting it with RGB and HSV-based images taken from an Android phone from various angles using machine learning techniques. Fertilizers such as potash, phosphorus, and nitrogen can then be utilized to boost yield. According to the findings, farmers can control and monitor citrus health production more efficiently and effectively by integrating machine learning with agriculture. The citrus calculation using the given technique compared with manually counted citrus, having difference of up to 5 to 10 citruses for a single plant per plot in a field. The proposed method produced excellent results under varying lighting conditions, leaf occlusion, and fruit overlap on photos taken at various distances from the orange trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. This study aims to explore the impact of tourism along with some other regressors, namely labor force, official development assistance, local investment, and inflation rate on the economic growth rate of the developing country of Pakistan. Material and Methods. We used annual time series data over the period from 1980 to 2018 for empirical analysis. Based on the order of integration of data, we employed an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach. Results. Empirical results vindicated a positive relationship between tourism and growth. The official development assistance and inflation rate have shown significantly negative impacts on the economic growth of Pakistan, whereas domestic investment has shown an insignificantly positive impact on the economic growth. Conclusions. The empirical findings exhibit that tourism plays a key role in the process of economic growth and development of Pakistan. The study recommends that the management authorities should implement appropriate policies to attract more tourists to improve economic growth of Pakistan. Furthermore, sincere efforts are required to ensure macroeconomic stability through controlling inflation, avoiding reception of foreign aid, and encouraging global investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

wWe use the urban political ecology perspective to explore how communities of homo religiosus (re)configure politics of COVID-19 in India and Pakistan. This urban health crisis unfolds in five parallel registers of conflictualities: (i) where religious communities carve out a domain for self-governance of the pandemic with their own 'knowledge and truths', (ii) where embodied religious practices challenge or undermine state biopower and transform governmentalities, (iii) where the spatial dimension of conflict evolves into the crisis of technologies of governance, (iv) where religious identities are stigmatized and the minority groups are excluded and (v) where communalism organizes around international relations. It is argued that religious groups in South Asia influenced the urban political (eco)pathology with their disruptive potential which transformed biosecurity regimes and enhanced health risks on the one hand and on the other, they embraced and internalized discords of disease within their antagonistic communal and sectarian memories and histories and weaponized the pandemic to produce more cracks in the social fabric. This essay underscores the significance of unusual actors in the urban political ecology framework and calls for a renewed understanding of human–nature interface by incorporating religion and religious beliefs and how they view and shape the metabolic flows in the urban spaces for social sustainability of the city as a 'natural object'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pesticides contamination is a global environmental and public health concern due to their carcinogenic and highly toxic nature for all kind of living organisms including plants, animals and humans. Pakistan as an agriculture-based country, annually use a huge amount of organochlorine pesticides (OC) to control insect pests and different diseases of crops, resulting in environmental contaminations and their subsequent exposure to humans. Unfortunately, more than half million people are endured annually from OC pesticides and other agro-chemicals poisoning in Pakistan. However, recent data on the uses, contamination and exposure of pesticides in Pakistan are largely unavailable. This review summarizes the recent information and provides data on consumption and contamination of pesticides with a particular focus on their exposure to humans in Pakistan. Studies must be conducted to precisely determine the current use, contamination level and exposure of pesticides in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of current research is to investigate the effects of terrorism, corruption and market size by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate on inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the context of Pakistan over the period 1973–2017. After checking the integration order of time series data using the most popular test. Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF), we implemented the Auto regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound testing method. The empirical results show that both corruption and terrorism have significant negative impacts, while market size has a significant positive effect on FDI inflows in Pakistan. The findings suggest that policy makers and the government must pay attention to these distressing determinants of FDI. A good control over corruption and terrorism will attract more FDI in Pakistan which will help Pakistan in achieving her macroeconomic goals such as enhancing economic growth and employment generation among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study is to analyze empirically the significance of the monetarist explanation of inflation in Pakistan. After testing the data for stationarity, the method of least squares is used. Regression analysis shows slight effects of money supply on inflation while, by contrast, structural factors involving wheat, oil and import prices show more substantial effects. The effective control of inflation requires policy makers to smoothen the supply of food and to moderate import prices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Even after more than sixty years of foreign aid flows of US$ 88325 million from various countries aimed to boost economic growth, still every third Pakistani lives below the poverty line. This study used the Error Correction Model (ECM) to revisit whether foreign aid contributed to economic growth in Pakistan over the period 1972 through 2012. Empirical results support the existence of a significant negative relationship between foreign aid and economic growth. The study makes a valuable addition to the body of literature on the impact of foreign aid on economic growth. The results are expected to guide policymakers with regards to the impact of foreign aid flows on Pakistan economic growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A close positive relationship between expansion in exports of a country and economic development has been observed by a good number of researchers theoretically as well empirically. The aim of this research is to investigate empirically the impacts of exports and foreign direct investment (hereafter FDI) on economic growth in Pakistan. Empirical results show positive significant impacts of exports and FDI on economic growth. Thus, findings of this study suggest that policy makers need to generate appropriate policy in order to increase the volume of exports and augment FDI inflows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study an attempt has been made to investigate the effects of economic factors on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into Pakistan, India and Indonesia. Simple log linear regression model for each country has been used and the method of least squares has been applied. Empirical results show that market size, domestic investment, trade openness, and physical infrastructure are the important economic determinants of FDI. Further, this study also found that the empirical results of the economic determinants of India matched with empirical results of Pakistan except two determinates (i.e., trade openness and government consumption), while that of Indonesia do not match with Pakistan and India. For attracting more FDI into Pakistan and India, the management authorities' needs to ensure economic and political stability, provision of infrastructure, peace and security, encouraging domestic investment and adoption of appropriate macroeconomic stabilization policy. Furthermore, this study recommend the same measures for Indonesia and suggest that more future research work are required for empirical investigation of determinants of FDI in Indonesia, to enhance the desirable level of FDI into the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the various economic factors effects on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into Pakistan, India and Indonesia during the study period ranging from 1971 to 2005. Log linear regression model for each country has been used and the method of least squares has been applied to estimate the various economic determinants effects on FDI inflows. Empirical results revealed that market size, external debt, domestic investment, trade openness, and physical infrastructure are the important economic determinants of FDI. Further, this study found that the empirical results of the economic determinants of India matched with the empirical results of Pakistan excluding two determinates (viz, trade openness and government consumption) while the results of Indonesia do not match with the results of the economic determinants of FDI for Pakistan and India. To enhance more FDI into Pakistan, India and Indonesia, the management authorities need to ensure economic and political stability, provision of infrastructure, peace and security, law & order situation, encourage domestic investment, curtail external debt, and equal importance may be given to appropriate monetary and fiscal policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was conducted with the broad aims to analyze the trend, pattern and benefits of FDI in Pakistan. Usually objectives of the home countries are to earn maximum profit and the host countries are interested in the benefits of FDI which are in the form of managerial skills and advanced technology, increased employment opportunities, and increase in government revenue etc., It has been observed that FDI inflow in the year 2004-05 reached US$ 1524 million as the highest if compared with last year FDI inflow in Pakistan. Further, it has been observed that FDI inflows if compared with the other developing countries in the region are not desirable. It has found that at this time for FDI in Pakistan the more suitable areas are energy sector, manufacturing sector, mining sector, IT and telecommunication, and value added textiles. The Government of Pakistan is well aware of the importance of FDI, therefore the management authorities should chalk out such policies, which encourage FDI inflow, and it will positively affect economic growth of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pakistan has not fully harnessed the capacity of its vast hydropower potential for electricity generation. It depends on imported and local fossil fuels to fulfill its energy demands, which consume a significant portion of the country's economy. Hydropower can provide an economical, renewable, clean, and secure source of energy for the country. The potential benefits and prospects of hydropower for Pakistan require a comprehensive review of the hydropower sector to investigate the true resource potential and its development, considering the associated pros and cons. Therefore, the review work examines hydropower utilization in Pakistan using SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. The strengths include an enormous resource potential, sustainable energy source, and a well-established technology; the weaknesses include substantial capital investment, time-taking project completion, degradation of the reservoir over time, and the effect of seasonal variations. The opportunities include increasing demand-supply gap, 93% unexploited potential, water storage dams, energy security, rising concerns for climate change; the threats include economic and political instability, dependence on foreign investment and fossil fuels, transboundary location of water resources, irregular and vague energy policies. The SWOT analysis shows that despite having severe issues, hydropower is still a priority source of secure, cheap, and clean energy for the country with abundant resource potential and a properly managed technology. • The paper analyzes the current energy crisis of Pakistan, the scenario of different power generation resources, the development history of hydropower, existing and installed potential, and policies related to hydropower. • The review conducts a comprehensive SWOT analysis to determine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats regarding hydropower. • Strengths and opportunities include tremendous untapped potential, clean and cheap source, decrease in the dependence on fossil fuels. • Weaknesses and threats include high capital cost, lengthy projects completion, the effect of seasonal variations, vague policies, transboundary water resources, economic and political instability. • The paper emphasizes the full exploitation of hydropower resources to lessen the energy crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field trials were conducted in arid area of Pakistan with wheat–cotton rotation to evaluate the potential use of brackish drainage effluent for soil reclamation and crop production. The original drainage effluent was diluted with canal water before application. The treatments included: simple leaching with marginal water (electrical conductivity (EC) 1.25 dS m−1) without growing crop; irrigation with saline water (EC 2.25 dS m−1) alone; irrigation with saline water and green manure; and irrigation with saline water and farmyard manure. The changes in infiltration rate, soil salinity and sodicity along with crop yield were recorded. Maximum improvement of 88.9% was recorded in infiltration rate with green and farmyard manure application. In case of soil salinity and sodicity, the highest decrease of 2.8 and 41.3% was recorded with farmyard manure and an increase of 39.2 and 14.9% with simple leaching at 0–15 cm depth. At other three sampling depths, all treatments significantly increased EC of soil. Whereas sodium absorption ratio increased only at the lowest depth (60–90 cm) under all treatments. The application of farmyard manure produced the highest wheat and cotton yield with an average of 1925 and 1485 kg ha−1, respectively. The overall results showed that the application of farmyard manure was comparatively more effective than other treatments in overcoming the adverse effects of irrigation with poor quality water. However, the use of farmyard manure with drainage effluent is recommended under acute shortage of irrigation water. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]