The combined effect of climatic factors and technical advancement on yield of sugarcane by using ARDL approach: evidence from Pakistan.

Sugarcane is one of the most important crops in the world and has a major influence on environmental concerns. This study aims to examine the association between sugarcane crop yield, climate change factors, and technical advancement using time series data for the period of 1989 to 2015 in Pakistan. An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and descriptive statistics analysis were employed in this study. The outcomes of the bound F-test for co-integration confirmed that there is a long-run and short-run equilibrium among sugarcane crop yield, temperature, rainfall, fertilizer use, and agricultural machinery. The results of long-run estimate that the coefficient of area, rainfall, and fertilizer use have significantly positive impacts on sugarcane crop yield. The coefficient of temperature had positive and non-significant while agricultural machinery had negative and statistically significant relationship with sugarcane crop yield. In the short-run estimates, the coefficient of area, rainfall, and fertilizer use have statistically positive impact, temperature had non-significant impact, and agricultural machinery had significantly negative impact on the yield of sugarcane crop. In addition, both CUSUM and CUSUMsq test results confirmed the goodness of fit of this model. The outcomes of our study suggest that climate change has negative impact on the yield of sugarcane. Based on the study findings, the Government requires to take effective measures for constructive policy-making and identification of environmental threats in Pakistan. Large-scale mechanical activities and rapid growing may be useful initiatives for raising the yield of sugarcane. Furthermore, technical advancement needs to be improved because it plays a vital role in increasing the yield of sugarcane and other major crops.