Environmental Degradation and Livestock Productivity under Climate Stress: Implications for Sustainable Agricultural Development

Environmental degradation is a multifaceted issue that drastically reduces production in Pakistan's agricultural sector. This study aims to investigate how environmental degradation affects cattle production in Pakistan, with implications for sustainable sectoral growth between 1980 and 2022. An autoregressive distributed lag estimator is used to determine how environmental deterioration (measured by CO2) and other factors, such as water availability, heat stress, inflation, floods, crop and forest area, affect livestock productivity. The results show that inflation and CO2 have long-term detrimental impacts on livestock productivity. Livestock productivity is positively and significantly affected by forest area, agricultural land, and water availability. The findings demonstrate that decreasing environmental deterioration and improving resource management and adaptability are necessary for Pakistan's cattle industry to thrive sustainably. The study also highlights the necessity of unified strategies focused on resource optimization, climate resilience, and environmental management.