A wrap-up on Climate Change
At some point in our childhood, we likely encountered a chapter on environmental science in our textbooks. Our teachers may have discussed climate change as something that could happen in the distant future. Yet, here we are today, witnessing its effects much sooner than we expected.
In simple terms, climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperature and weather patterns. It affects health, agriculture, housing, and the well-being of both humans and animals. Importantly, climate change is not confined to any one region; its impact is global. This year, its consequences have been particularly clear. For the first time, India as a whole faced record-high temperatures during the summer, followed by widespread flooding in many parts of the country, as well as across the world, during the rainy season.
Causes of Climate Change
Climate change has origins that are both human and natural. Volcanic eruptions, variations in solar radiation, tectonic movements and even minute adjustments to our orbit have all been seen to have an impact on the patterns of planetary warming and cooling throughout Earth’s history.
According to climate experts, the rate of global warming that has happened since the beginning of the industrial revolution is far quicker than it has ever been. The concentration of carbon dioxide increased by 25%. The globe is warming more quickly than it has in at least the previous two millennia due to greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. Although rising temperature is one aspect of climate change that many people associate with it, this is not the whole picture. Changes in one place can have an impact on changes in every other location since the Earth is a system in which everything is interconnected.
The main causes of climate change include human activities such as the production of energy for transportation and electricity, urbanization, human interactions with the land and human consumption patterns. When fossil fuels are burned, greenhouse emissions (esp. carbon dioxide and methane) are released into the atmosphere, which surrounds the Earth like a blanket and traps solar heat. Even if this is a little adjustment, a detailed review by UN reports indicates that it is more than enough to transform Earth’s living circumstances. Some greenhouse gases aren’t even found in nature, such as hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HFCs). We contributed to the Earth’s average temperature rising by regularly injecting these gases into the atmosphere, which brought about the current period of catastrophic weather extremes.
Effects of Climate change in Agriculture
Even though India has a long and rich agricultural history, research indicates that the country’s agricultural sector is slowly but steadily responding to the changing climate. A thorough examination reveals that 50% of India’s working class is employed in agriculture. Climate change clearly affects the farming community, as evidenced by the fact that agriculture’s share of the GDP dropped to less than 20% in the preceding ten years.
A global study indicates that by 2100, agricultural production will have decreased by 10% to 40%. South Asian countries should have an average thirty percent reduction in food output by the middle of the twenty-first century. The yields of vegetable crops would drop by 5 to 15% if the daily concentration of ozone surged to more than 50 parts per billion.
Here, we will be discussing the 3 effects of climate change in agriculture.
1. Changes in weather patterns
Every region has a specific sequence of weather patterns that is followed every year. Climate change has distrubed these patterns causing unseasonal rains, drought conditions, heat waves, rise in temperature during winter season and many such. Such an unseasonal weather patterns affects farming in many ways.
i. Unseasonal Rains
Alphonso mangoes, watermelon, coriander and many such crops mature during summers. Sunlight is essential for enhancing the quality of the produce. The tastefulness, colorfulness and fracturability of the produce is determined by duration of sunlight that it receives. Occurrence of unseasonal rains during summers affects the quality of crops thus causing reduction in market value of the crop. One such example is of Alphonso Mango growers in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. Even a rain for a day during summer season may cause reduction in mango prices in the next day of sale.
ii. Drought conditions
The drought conditions that is faced today is greater than what was faced earlier times. This is already visible in some parts of East Africa. Countries like Ethiopia, Somalia is facing crop failures and losses as a result of 2years of drought. This has led loss of livelihood, large displacement of human population. Millions of livestock died due to lack of fodder and water.
While certain agricultural approaches and technologies may be developed or adapted by researchers and farmers, they will not be enough to address the multitude of problems being caused.
2. Pest and Disease Outbreak
The impact of climate change on crop pest and diseases is very complex. It is governed by many factors and a combination of factors and do not solely rely on one factor. The consequences of climate change can be both positive and negative for pest species. However, according to research, climate change tends to favour in proliferation of pest and diseases.
Climate change has direct effect on agricultural crops and the pests that feed upon them. They effect the reproduction, development, survival and their spread. It also effects on the relationships between pests, their environment, and other insect species such as natural enemies, competitors, vectors, and mutualists.
Temperature and rainfall are found to be the prime factors to effect the insect pest species. An increase in precipitation and temperature favours the growth of pest population as it provides a warm and humid environment. But at the same time, too much of rainfall or temperature affects the pest species in negative manner by slowing the growth rate, washing the eggs and larvae from plants.
Studies has also shown that climate change can cause phenological mismatches between pest species and their host plants or predators, although their impacts remain difficult to evaluate. This phenomenon threatens specialist predators more than polyphagous ones and could have an impact on the effectiveness of biological pest control.
Insects grow slow in temperate regions. But according to experts, the crop pest and diseases are moving at an average speed of 3km/year towards the north and south poles, due to rise in temperature. Pests now have better chances to spread, multiply and migrate between different regions as a result of the ecological niches that climate change has created.
This spread of pest species and diseases are causing overuse of pesticides and fungicides both of which are dangerous to human health and environment.
3. Impact on Production and Productivity
Climate change poses a significant threat to food security, often as a direct consequence of the factors mentioned above. Regions once ideal for cultivating certain crops are now facing shifting climates, making it more challenging to maintain yields.
Factors like fruit dropping, unfavorable weather conditions, unseasonal rains, and increased pest infestations have all contributed to decreased production and overall productivity.
For instance, a farmer in Maharashtra converted his farm into an orange orchard, hoping for better returns. However, he has now fallen victim to the changing climate, leading to substantial losses on his investment. The impact of climate change in production and productivity is profoundly visible in some countries of Africa.
Do farming contribute to climate change?
You may wonder if farming also plays a role in climate change. The answer is, unfortunately, yes. Farming contributes to global warming in several ways: carbon dioxide from burning crop stubble, methane emissions from livestock, and nitrous oxide released from fertilized soils are all significant contributors. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, agriculture is responsible for nearly one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions.
A well-known example is the stubble burning practiced extensively in Punjab and Haryana after crop harvests. This burning is a major contributor to the rise in air pollution in Delhi. The government has taken steps to mitigate the issue, and some startups are working on innovative solutions to address this challenge.
Solutions to mitigate effects of Climate change
Effective environment and Urban Policies: Stringent and effective policies which could potentially address and mitigate the current issues of climate change should be made. The implementation of these policies must be checked strictly. Paris Agreement on climate change must be taken seriously and be implemented by all the nations of the world.
The construction of new infrastructure, roads, and urban development should not come at the expense of the environment. The government must strictly oversee and regulate these activities to ensure minimal environmental impact.
Development of Climate Resilient varieties: The agriculture research institutes should focus on developing and enhancing current climate resilient varieties. These varieties are resistant/tolerant to heatwaves, flooding, drought etc. This year on 11th August 2024, PM Narendra Modi inaugurated 109 new crop varieties. Few farmers have swift to cultivation of Millets which are more climate resilient than other cereal crops.
Global Surveillance system: Potential outbreaks of pests and disease incidence could be detected early by smart surveillance systems. This could warn farmers, researchers and policy makers of potential outbreaks. Recent technology like MARPLE, a revolutionary mobile lab developed jointly by CIMMYT and Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture Research helps in detection and diagnosis of wheat rusts in 48 hours.
Encouraging success tales
Telangana’s Millet Man: The “Millet Man,” Mr. Veer Shetty Biradar, a well-known businessman in Telangana, employed millets as a test subject. He plants foxtail millet, finger millet, bajra, jowar, and bajra, along with sugarcane, chickpeas, and red gram. Compared to other crops, millets require less water and are more resilient to heat (up to 64 degrees), drought, and flooding. Therefore, millet will be an obvious choice for farmers in an era of climate change and diminishing natural resources. Many farmers receive technical assistance from him as well, and many Telangana farmers intercrop jowar.
Yadav Bhavanth – Greenhouse for better production: A 37-year-old Telangana farmer named Yadav Bhavanth used greenhouses to help him cope with extreme weather conditions like heatwaves, prolonged droughts, and sudden downpours. Because of the high level of illness and insect infestation, things became worse with the rain. To conserve water, he used drip irrigation and planted his crops in protected areas. Because farming in greenhouses is more secure, over fifty farmers are currently engaged in this activity as an outcome of this motivation.
The use of micro irrigation methods boosted the yield of onion and garlic: Garlic and onions require different amounts of water depending on the weather and locale. They need regular watering since they are shallow-rooted and they are particularly vulnerable to moisture stress situations when the bulb is just starting to grow. In India, they are grown as irrigated crops in flat beds or ridge-and-furrow systems. Blass, working with Kibbutz Hatzerim, devised the first feasible surface irrigation technique. Subsequent studies have demonstrated that this type of irrigation is the most efficient. This technique often uses both drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation. It was found that nurseries with drip irrigation, covered with hessian cloth or agro-shade net, ensured 80–83 per cent germination of seeds and 58 per cent stand of seedlings by summer. Pune was the first city in India to employ it, and subsequently, Karnataka found success in this practice.
REFERENCES
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/what-is-climate-change
https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/climate/climate-change-impacts
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666154323002405#fig3