Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
are largely determined by weather during the growing season. Even with
minor deviations from the normal weather, the efficiency of extremely ap-
plied inputs and food production is seriously impaired.
Climate Change is projected to have significant impacts on conditions
affecting agriculture, including temperature, precipitation and glacial run
off. It affects agriculture in more ways than one. It can affect crop yield as
well as the types of crops that can be grown in certain areas, by impacting
agricultural inputs such as water for irrigation, amounts of solar radiation
that affect plant growth, as well as the prevalence of pests. Effect of cli-
mate change on agriculture or more precisely on insect pests and diseases
of agricultural crops is multidimensional. Changes in temperature, mois-
ture and atmospheric gases can fuel growth and generation rates of plants,
fungi and insects, altering the interactions between pests, their natural
enemies and their hosts. Changes in land cover, such as deforestation or
desertification, can make remaining plants and animals increasingly vul-
nerable to pests and diseases.
15.2 CHALLENGES, OPERATING ENVIRONMENT,
OPPORTUNITIES AND TARGETS
Pests and diseases have historically affected food production either di-
rectly through losses in food crops and animal production, or indirectly
through lost profits from insufficient cash crop yields. While new pests
and diseases have regularly emerged throughout history, climate change
is now throwing any number of unknowns into the equation. Today, these
losses are being exacerbated by the changing climate and its increasing
volatility, threatening food security and rural livelihoods throughout the
world. Developing countries with a high dependence on agriculture are the
most in danger to today's changing patterns of pests and disease. Hundreds
of millions of smallholder farmers depend exclusively on agriculture and
for their survival. As rural farmers struggle to produce food, poor people
in nearby urban areas are left to contend with less availability in addition
to higher food prices. National economies will also suffer as new pests
and diseases either reduce agricultural products' access to International
markets or incur higher costs associated with inspection, treatment and
compliance.
