Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
pruning of side and criss-cross branches may ensure that microclimate is
not congenial for build-up of sucking pests and inflorescence blight dis-
ease.
Cashew crop offers immense scope for climate change mitigation
through carbon sequestration and also by modification of microcli-
mate. It has dense green leaves with good photosynthetic capacity and can
also be grown in high-density planting system. Cashew is suitable crop for
carbon sequestration. It can be grown in vast degraded/wasteland exist-
ing in cashew-growing regions. Based on research undertaken at DCR, it
was found that, cashew genotype (VTH-174) trees of 7 years old seques-
tered about 2.2 fold higher carbon under high density planting system (625
trees/ha) as compared to normal density planting system (156 trees/ha).
Carbon storage by cashew has been estimated as 32.25 and 59.22 t CO
2
/
ha at 5th and 7th years of growth, respectively under high density plant-
ing. The extent of carbon sequestered will depend on the amounts of C in
standing biomass, age of the crop, tree density, variety, etc.
6.5 FUTURE RESEARCHABLE ISSUES
• Development of cashew varieties resistant to abiotic stresses like
temperature, drought, salinity, floods, etc.
• Development of climate resilient agro-techniques in order to suit un-
favorable abiotic stresses.
• Assessment of the impacts of elevated CO
2
and temperature on
growth, development, yield and quality of cashew.
• Early warning weather forecasts on rains, storms, etc.
• Weather based pest-forecasting system.
• Quantification of carbon sequestration potential of cashew.
• Development of crop simulation models for cashew.
• Assessment of new pest and diseases in the scenario of climate
change.
• Development of cost effective, ecofriendly approaches for manage-
ment of emerging pests.
• To cope up with anticipated climate change impacts, mitigation and
adaptation strategies for cashew need to be developed.
