Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
A number of flowers like chrysanthemum, poinsettia and carnation
are either photo sensitive or thermo sensitive or both. Changing pattern
in photo periodism and thermo periodism would greatly alter the bloom-
ing pattern in such flower crops. Climate change is expected to enhance
the global temperatures by 2-3 °C by 2050. This would alter the chilling
requirement of some of the temperate flower crops. The insect pest and
disease dynamics would bring about a change in use of pesticides in open
and protected environments. Increase in temperature would alter the rela-
tive humidity levels that would have profound impact on disease incidence
and its spread.
Breeding specific varieties that are tolerant to high/low temperature
by incorporating the suitable species like
Rosa macarantha
and
Rosa spi-
nosissima
in roses, selecting lines that are capable of selective salt uptake
or exclusion or make osmotic adjustments to regulate turgor pressure to
select salt tolerant lines in salt sensitive crops.
The paper outlines the breeding strategies to be adopted to mitigate the
challenges enlisted in some of the important floricultural crops.
13.1 INTRODUCTION
Climate change is one of the most important global environmental chal-
lenges facing humanity with implications for food production, natural
ecosystems, freshwater supply, health, etc. According to the latest scien-
tific assessment, the earth's climate system has demonstrably changed on
both global and regional scales since the preindustrial era. The average
global temperature has increased by 0.8 °C in the past 100 years. The In-
tergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that the global
mean temperature may increase between 1.4 and 5.8 °C by 2100. It is
now well known that warming will also be associated with changes in
rainfall patterns, increased frequency of extreme events of drought, frost
and flooding. Collectively all these factors will affect output of agricul-
ture and allied sectors. India is one of the 27 countries likely to be most
affected. This unprecedented change is expected to have severe impacts
on the global hydrological system, ecosystems, sea level, crop produc-
tion and related processes. The impact would be particularly severe in the
tropical areas, which mainly consist of developing countries, including In-
dia. The UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in
