Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
drought. Kumar and Parikh (1998a, b) have shown that even
with the adaptation by farmers of their cropping patterns and
inputs, in response to climate change, the losses would remain
significant. The loss in farm-level net revenue is estimated to
range between 9% and 25% for a temperature rise of 2-3.5°C.
With the knowledge gathered to date, it is possible to con-
solidate the gains and adapt to changes in order to tackle the
negative effects of climate change on rice production and pro-
ductivity for assuring the food security of the Indian popula-
tion. Some of the possible options include
Varietal adaptation:
Considerable variation exists between
the rice varieties in tolerance to high temperatures. If the
sensitivity of spikelet sterility to temperature is increased
by 2°C for the new varieties, it can offset the detrimental
effect completely. Two possible adaptations are likely to
occur: one could be the use of varieties more tolerant to
temperature in the low latitude region and the other is the
use of late maturing varieties to take advantage of the
longer growing season in high latitude areas (Matthews
et al., 1995).
Adjustment of planting date:
Adjusting planting dates could
be another strategy, which is likely to be adopted in the
future by rice farmers. At high latitudes, a rise of tem-
perature would lengthen the period in which rice can be
grown. In northern China (Shenyang), yield increases of
43% are expected by advancing the planting date of rice
by 30 days. At Madurai, India, significant yield decrease
was predicted if current planting dates were used under
the GISS scenario due to high spikelet sterility. It could
be possible to offset these yield reductions if planting was
delayed by 1 month.
Environment-friendly cultivation practice:
It would be use-
ful to standardise methods of reducing the contribution
of agriculture to GHG accumulation in the atmosphere
either through efficient water management to control CH
4
release or proper utilisation of fertiliser-N that could con-
tribute to the emission of N
2
O.
15.13
Genetic resource centres for adaptation to
climate changes
Gene pools occur in nature for adaptation to drought, floods
and sea level changes. Unfortunately, gene erosion through
