Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
2.1 INTRODUCTION
In India, diverse horticultural crops are grown due to the availability of
different climactic zones ranging from extreme temperate (chilgoza, pe-
cannut, walnut) to tropical crops (banana, cashewnut, avocado). Hence,
after China, India is the second largest country in terms of area and pro-
duction of fruits in the world. The impact of horticulture industry in India
is visible as it contributes to about 29.5% of Agriculture GDP from 13.5%
of area, and also contributes substantially to the earning from total ag-
ricultural exports. Horticultural crops need high investment due to long
juvenile period. Apart from investment the growers should have technical
knowhow to minimize the risk involved in this venture.
The long-term climatic variations and sudden fluctuation in weather
parameters raised doubts for investment in fruit industry. In order to sus-
tain farm income and provide nutritional security, it becomes imperative to
understand the possible impacts of climate change on various horticultural
crops. The ever increase in greenhouse gasses emission resulted warming
of climate by 0.74 °C over the last 100 years (Sthaye et al., 2006; Ghude
et al., 2009). However, it is uncertain to comment on future, but according
to IPCC 2001 the increase in global temperature and other weather events
will continue with higher frequency in twenty-first centurydue to emission
of greenhouse gases. The phenology of horticultural plants is greatly af-
fected by maximum, minimum and mean temperatures. Every fruit crop
has specific requirements for temperature for growth, flowering, fruit de-
velopment and maturity. The fruits plants are being grown in area where it
is best adapted to prevailing climates. Increased global temperature would
require demand for more high temperature adaptable varieties. The effect
of increasing air temperatures is the prolongation of the growing season
(Chmielewski and Rötzer, 2001; Menzel and Fabian, 1999) and the modi-
fication of the phenological phases of individual plants, i.e. the sequence
of the developmental stages. The climatic change will affect suitability
and adaptability of current cultivars by altering the growing period. The
broad effects can be summarized as:
• Shift in growing location of fruits particularly temperate crops;
• Effect on chilling requirement;
• Flowering and fruit set of fruit crops through heat stress, bee activ-
ity, etc.;
