Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
3.1 INTRODUCTION
The North Western Himalayas have a unique and fragile ecosystem, where
people are heavily dependent on their natural environment for their sus-
tainance and livelihood and draws about 60% of Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) from agri-horticultural system. The climate in this region temper-
ate type mainly characterized by extreme cool winters and mild summers.
It offers tremendous opportunity to produce high quality horticulture crops
like apple, pear, peach, plum, almond, apricot, walnut
and
off-season veg-
etable, and ornamental crops. These crops covers an area of more than 500
thousand hectares and produces fruits of approximately 31 lakh tons. After
independence there has been seen marked growth in area and production
of these crops but on the other hand productivity has left far behind as
compared to advanced countries. The low productivity is mainly attributed
to several factors including environmental, physiological and biological.
But over the years, environmental changes playing a significant role like
occurrence of erratic rain and snowfall, droughts increase in temperature,
etc. resulting in fast receding of glaciers. A significant change in climate at
global and national level is certainly impacting horticulture and affecting
our fruit production and quality. But understanding of impact of climate
change on perennial horticultural production system and the potential ef-
fects on fruit quality has drawn a little attention of researchers. The current
and future changes in climate patterns and presence of higher concentra-
tions of anthropogenic gases in the atmosphere can have dramatic effects
on yield, flavor and nutritional quality of fruit. These effects are likely to
affect both growers and consumers. The projected increase in surface-air
temperature can have both positive and negative effects on eating qual-
ity of fruit. The yield and quality may be inferior in fruit produced under
water-deficit or high rainfall conditions. The staggered flowering due to
inadequate chilling in temperate fruit crops can lead to low fruit set, non-
uniform fruit quality and wider harvest windows. Fruit coloration may be
severely affected because the biosynthesis of coloring pigments is strong-
ly influenced by the temperature. The nutritional value and antioxidant
potential of fruit may be affected due to decrease in skin pigments. The
severity of certain physiological disorders in fruits is likely to increase,
contributing economic losses to the growers. The projected increase in the
incidence of insect-pests and diseases would further affect the fruit quality
and consequently low pack-outs for farmers.
