Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
crucial to agriculture. The rainfall during summer (
Kharif)
season likely
to be increased in eastern and central parts of India. Shift in surplus rain-
fall from west to east has also been reported. Primarily, increasing need,
overuse of increasing population, covering more land under irrigation, and
sand mining are the major causes resulting severe reduction in water re-
sources for crops and regions.
Secondly, the continuous failure of rains and/or scarce raining is the
reason for poor water recharge in wells that is not allowing the sufficient
irrigation to the crops. Whereas, on other hand, IPCC goes on to estimate
that even under its most conservative scenario, sea level in 2100 will be
about 40 cm higher than today, which will cause an additional 80 million
coastal residents in Asia alone to be flooded. The majority of those flooded
will be in south Asia, particularly in Bangladesh and India. A one-meter
sea level rise would result in nearly 6000 sq.kms in India being flooded,
including parts of major cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
Sea level rise will affect the coastal zone in multiple ways, including the
inundation and displacement of wetlands and lowlands, coastal erosion,
as well as increased coastal storm flooding and salinization (IPCC, 2007).
All above factors are associated with the climate change and global
warming and present the scenarios with extreme events like heat waves,
cold spells, severe thunderstorms, tropical cyclones, storm surges, severe
storms, drought, etc. Climate change has posed a threat due to rise in sea
level and extreme weather events and threats to human health, water avail-
ability, and food security. Many countries even some states in India have
been witnessing changes in rainfall, resulting in more floods, droughts, or
intense rain, as well as more frequent and severe heat, cold waves, frost
days, droughts, floods, etc., with immense impact on agricultural and hor-
ticultural crops.
1.3
INDIAN HORTICULTURE AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Horticultural crops like other agricultural crop are less vulnerable to the
threat of climate change impacts. India has varying agro-climatic condi-
tions that allow the cultivation of almost all types of horticultural crops
thereby regarded as the best option for diversification and maximizing
system productivity. Improved productivity and profitability compared to
field crops have been observed in horticultural crops even under adverse
