Helping Pakistan’s farmers thrive amid climate-driven floods Impact Makers: Maha Sheikh

NAME

Maha Sheikh

TITLE

Founder & Executive Director, Floating Raft Agriculture

LOCATION

Thatta, SindhPakistan

ABOUT

Maha Sheikh is an architect, designer and researcher based in Karachi, Pakistan. She is currently working in commercial and residential space making at ASA, a Karachi based architecture and interior design practice that is responsible for many reputable projects in the country. 

She  received a grant from UNDP that has given her the opportunity to research farming communities in rural Sindh, with a strong commitment to sustainable development. She graduated from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in 2022, and is the recipient of the Kausar Bashir Ahmed Award for the year 2023-2024 by the IAP Board of Architecture Education for her work on socially sustainable architecture for neglected coastal communities.From her time at IVSAA she has been interested in climate crisis ruptures while simultaneously developing and refining case studies from grassroot level in the vulnerable South Asian region to take her learnings into formal practice.

She has spoken about and displayed her thesis work at global events such as Youth4Climate in Rome, and Summit of the Future during climate week in New York. Sheikh is continuing her experiments as a lead architect with floating agri belts in the rural grounds of the most affected province of Pakistan, Sindh, focusing on developing a climate-adaptive livelihood practice for year-round farming. 

MOTIVATIONS

The initiative emerged after the catastrophic floods in Pakistan in August 2022 which submerged one-third of the country, displacing 33 million people and destroying 2.8 million hectares of cropland. In response, Maha mobilized communities in Thatta, Sindh, in collaboration with Indus Earth Trust, to pilot a floating raft system designed to ensure continuous farming even when conventional land-based agriculture is impossible.

IMPACT

• Piloted floating rafts in Thatta, Sindh, enabling farming on waterlogged land.

• Created a dual-purpose design that supports crop growth on water during floods and on dry land during heatwaves and droughts.

• Introduced alternative livelihoods by enabling continuous farming, improving nutrition, and boosting farmers' incomes.

• Mobilized local communities to adopt climate-smart agricultural techniques and formalise indigenous knowledge into disaster management practices.

CHALLENGES

• Frequent and unpredictable climate extremes make long-term agricultural planning challenging.

• Scaling the floating raft system requires additional funding, materials, and training infrastructure.

• Encouraging farmers to adopt new agricultural practices while addressing cultural and logistical barriers.

GOALS

• Scale the floating raft system to other flood-prone regions in Pakistan and beyond.

• Collaborate with government bodies to formalise climate adaptation strategies and integrate floating raft agriculture into national disaster management frameworks.

• Develop specialised training modules to equip farmers with advanced hydroponic farming techniques.

CONTACT

Website: Instagram - Floating Raft Agriculture