Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ABSTRACT
Climate change is a significant statistical distribution of weather patterns
over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change
in average weather conditions, or in the distribution of weather around
the average conditions. Temperature and CO
2
concentration are the most
important components of climate change influencing agriculture. An in-
crease of CO
2
level in atmosphere traps the solar radiation and increases
the temperature near earth surface. A slight increase in temperature im-
poses several stress to the fruit plants mainly moisture and incomplete
chilling which adversely affect the productivity and quality attribute of
fruit crops. Soil solarization is a relatively new, nonchemical method of
soil disinfestation, and is cost effective to methyl bromide crisis and this
encompasses the benefits of the concept made possible through advances
in plastic mulch technology. Solarization currently is an important and
widespread practice for agri-horticultural production including fruit crops.
Moreover, it is an effective tool for moisture conservation, pest control,
weeds suppression, the improvement in nutrient availability and microbial
activity in soil profile of fruit crops and has been mainly used commer-
cially in regions where air temperatures are very high during the sum-
mer season. Through this article in agriculture can come to understand
methods of solarization adopted in fruit cultivation and their efficiency to
combat effects of climate change.
12.1 INTRODUCTION
Soil solarization is a polyethylene mulching application used to increase
soil temperature that is lethal to many microorganisms including those
that cause diseases in economically important agri-horticultural crops
(Gill and Robert, 2010). Solarization originated during the 1970s intended
for soil disinfestations by means of solar energy. Solarization was based
on observations by the extension workers and farmers in the Jordan Val-
ley, who noticed the intensive heating of the polyethylene mulched soil.
However, at the time, the deleterious effect of high temperatures on soil-
borne pathogens was known, but heat treatment of soils was not widely
implemented due to economic considerations and practicality issues. The
technique has been commercially exploited for growing high-value crops
