Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
with special reference to India, the contribution of agri-
culture towards climate change, its implication, abate-
ment, trade-off, adaptation and adjustment with barriers
and policy recommendations towards achieving climate-
smart agriculture.
1.1
Introduction
The major environmental problem of our time is the threat of
global climate change, which is due to anthropogenic modifica-
tion of the atmosphere (Anonymous, 2001a-e; 2007a-c, 2008a;
Chakravarty and Mallick, 2003). Fossil fuel consumption cou-
pled with deforestation has increased the concentration of CO
2
in the atmosphere by some 25% (Wittwer, 1990; Chakravarty
et al., 2012). The increasing greenhouse gases (GHGs) resulted
in global warming by 0.74°C over the past 100 years and 11 of
the 12 warmest years were recorded between 1995 and 2006
(Anonymous, 2007b). The IPCC projections on temperature
predict an increase of 1.8-4.0°C by the end of this century
(Anonymous, 2007b). The issues of climate change due to this
warming have led to a serious concern of agricultural productiv-
ity worldwide, because agriculture is both a possible contributor
of GHGs to the atmosphere (Waggoner, 1992; Duxbury et al.,
1993; Jackson and Geyer, 1993; Bakken et al., 1994; Jallow,
1995; Krapfenbauer and Wriessnig, 1995; Zeddies, 1995; Tinker
et al., 1996; Boyle and Lavkulich, 1997; Fearnside, 1997) and an
industry that is highly sensitive to climatic variates (Rogers and
Dahlman, 1993; Hofreither and Sinabell, 1996).
Global warming and climate change are often interchange-
ably used and understood, but these terms are not identical.
Climate change includes both warming and cooling conditions,
while global warming pertains only to climatic changes related
to increase in temperatures (Grover, 2004). The climatic system
is a complex interactive system consisting of the atmosphere,
land surface, snow and ice, oceans and other bodies of water
and living things. The atmospheric component of the climatic
system most obviously characterises climate. It is often defined
as 'average weather'. Climate is usually described in terms of
the mean and variability of temperature, precipitation and wind
over a period of time ranging from months to millions of years
(Anonymous, 20 07a).
First of all, all over the world, there has been a slow but steady
rise in temperature over the last few decades. Moreover, along-
side this warming, the globe has also been subject to a general
