Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ABSTRACT
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has projected a
temperature rise of 1-3 °C which may impact agriculture adversely, may
reduce crop yields up to 10 percent by 2020 for Asia (IPCC, 2007). Some
Indian studies have indicated that 5-7% decline in wheat yields for every
degree Celsius increase in temperature given that current level of irriga-
tion does not erode (Abdul Vahab Abdul Haris, 2013; Agarwal, 2009). Im-
pacts and magnitude of climate change, a global phenomenon though not
precisely understood as they become discernible at their tipping points,
gradually increased risks originating from erratic weather, altering dy-
namics of pests and diseases have the potential to adversely impact crop
yields and crop distribution in the country. Crop production dynamics in
mango in different parts of the country in recent years is gripped with un-
certainties due to occurrence of weather extremes, inadequacies of water
and nutrient management and impacts of altered pests and diseases preva-
lence. The Konkan region of Maharashtra where the production of coun-
try's premier variety, '
Alphonso
' is under monoculture getting impacted
by weather vagaries for the last four years under the influence of western
disturbances needs elaborate studies for understanding in order to develop
adaptation and mitigation strategies. Despite some regional studies un-
dertaken to profile the effects of some weather parameters on response of
mango crop in some agro-ecologies, a clear understanding of its vulner-
ability to different phenophases events
vis a vis
production constraints is
yet to emerge. This is especially important as mango production in recent
years is getting adversely impacted by such weather variables as both high
as well as low temperatures, unseasonal rainfall, floods, sunshine hours,
relative humidity, wind speed, etc. These variables potentially affected
the different phenophases viz., vegetative growth dynamics, fruit bud dif-
ferentiation, flowering, pests and diseases dynamics, fruit set and devel-
opment, maturity, harvests and eventually the markets. Limited informa-
tion however, is available on the understanding the impacts of weather
components either individually or conjunctively influencing individual
phenophases and their contribution to over all crop outputs in order to
put in place effective horticultural interventions. The spatio-temporal rela-
tionships and relative effects of critical weather variables on phenophases
and crop productivity when appraised on collective and regional basis
will facilitate development of models that could form part of the Deci-
