eChapters

Stress is usually defined as an external factor that exerts a disadvantageous influence on the plant. Under both natural and agricultural conditions, plants are exposed to unfavourable environments that result in some degree of stress. Water deficit, chilling and freezing, heat stress and heat shock, salinity, oxygen deficiency and air pollution are major stress factors restricting plant growth. Stress is measured in relation to plant survival, plant processes, growth and crop yield. An environment, which is stressful for one plant, may not be stressful for another, e.g., pea and soybean that grow best at 20 and 30°C, respectively. As the temperature increases, the pea shows sign of heat stress much sooner than soybean, thus, soybean has greater heat stress tolerance.

To the farmers, the plants those survive in an adverse environment are called hardy plants and those, which do not survive under a particular adverse environment, are called susceptible or tender plants. So based on reactions of several plants to the environment, particular plants are selected for a region and also the farmers to suit the nature of a crop adopt different seasons of planting. Biologists have adopted the term stress for any environmental factor potentially unfavourable to a living organism. The ability of the plant to survive the unfavourable factor is due to its stress resistance. There is an equal and opposite reactions for every action. Stress is the action, whereas, strain is the reaction. A body of a plant subjected to stress is in a state of strain. External force of a particular stress causes disturbances in the body of the plant leading to a change in either shape or size and also may lead to internal disturbances, which affect physiological processes. Up to a point, a strain may be completely reversible. When the stress is released at this stage, the plant becomes normal without exhibiting any strain, which is known as elastic strain. Beyond this point, the strain will be partially elastic and irreversible partially, and then we say, it reaches permanent set and it is known as plastic strain.

Growth is a characteristic of life of any living being, and it continues until the end of organism. It is expressed in height, weight, volume, size, shape, number and area in every biological system. The shape and size of the plants are because of their continued cellular development and differentiation. Growth, which is quantified mathematically in terms of time, is termed as growth rate, and this gives a valuable information documenting growth as influenced by various abiotic, edaphic and biotic factors.

Principles

Various growth indices are better indicators of plant or crop performance under a specific treatment. Growth indices can be calculated from pot culture or field grown plants. Growth curve can be fitted using these values to predict productivity.

Requirements

Greenhouse or field-grown plants, scale, tags, hot air oven, electronic balance and leaf area meter are the basic requirements for recording the data on different parameters of growth.

The ultimate aim of production, handling and distribution of vegetables is to satisfy the consumers, and it is well known fact that consumer satisfaction depends on quality of the produce what he gets (Shewfelt et al., 1997). The term quality implies the degree of suitability of produce for a particular use. Quality can be expressed as an absence of defects or degree of excellence of the produce in respect to appearance, i.e., size, shape and colour. Quality is a bundle of attributes that are inherent in the produce and can readily be quantified throughout handling and distribution. It may also be defined as a series of attributes selected based on accuracy and precision of measurement. For grades and standards, the definition of quality is institutionalized so that it may have the same meaning for every one using it. Combination of characteristic features of the produce itself is termed as quality and that the consumer’s perception and response to those characteristic features should be referred to as acceptability.

Quality of produce encompasses sensory properties, such as appearance, texture, odour, aroma, taste and flavour that are readily perceived by the human senses and hidden attributes, such as safety, chemical constituents, nutritive values, mechanical properties, functional property and defects that require sophisticated instruments to measure (Abbott, 1999). Combination of sensory and instrumental measurements of quality attributes provides an estimate of customer acceptability. In a long chain from producer to the actual consumer, each passes judgment and each has his own set of acceptability or quality criteria, often biased by personal expectations and preferences. The component attributes of quality vary with context. The choice of what to measure, how to measure it and what values acceptable to the consumer are determined by the person requiring the measurement, with consideration of the intended use of the produce. Quality can be measured, and it relates to consumer acceptability.

Vegetables form an important component of our daily diet as they provide necessary nutrients to the diet and they add colour, texture and flavour to it. Vegetables contain very high content of water (about 78 to 98%) and are reasonably good source of starch, sugar, cellulose, hemicellulose, pentosans and pectic substances. They also contribute minerals, vitamins and indigestible fibers to our diet. The yellow, orange and dark green leafy vegetables are rich source of carotenes- the precursors of vitamin A. Non-volatile acids, such as citric, malic, oxalic and succinic acids, contribute to their flavour. The very strong flavour characteristics of some vegetables like onion, garlic, cabbage, cauliflower, etc. are due to certain sulfur containing volatile compounds. However, vegetables, in general, are poor source of protein and amino acids.

India has made significant progress in the production of vegetables since independence because its diverse agro-climatic zones ranging from tropical to temperate allow the production of a wide spectrum of vegetables.At present, the country is producing about 108 million tonnes of vegetables and considered the second largest producer in the world (Venkatesan et al., 2006). Currently, the plant breeders are focusing their efforts to produce high yielding varieties having resistance against diseases and herbicides and tolerance against drought and salinity. Therefore, the physical aspects of quality, i.e., shape, size, texture, colour, tenderness, etc. are given due priority in the breeding programme with no emphasis to the biochemical and nutritional quality parameters, which include dry matter, proteins, vitamins, sugars, flavouring compounds, alkaloids, flavonoids, etc. However, under present set up of World Trade Organization (WTO), the country will have to compete with quality conscious European and developed countries, and with inferior quality product, it would not be possible to penetrate the foreign market. Therefore, breeding programme in a country like India with future-plans of globalization of agriculture produce must be aimed at achieving good nutritional quality. In different types of vegetable, a varied set of biochemical parameters determines the quality. In this chapter, the methods for qualitative and quantitative determination of these parameters in vegetables have been described.

In India, the total losses of vegetables due to inadequate post-harvest handling, transportation and storage facilities have been estimated at least 25-40%. However, in some vegetables, the post-harvest losses may be as high as 80-100%. Being highly perishable nature of the vegetables, the losses always increase as the produce moves from harvesting to the consumer. Vegetables with a loss of as little as 5% in fresh weight show shrivelled, wilted and staled appearance, which makes the vegetable tissues tough, non-crispy and unpalatable, and eventually, lowers their saleability and consumer acceptability considerably.

Improper harvesting, handling, transportation, storage and distribution of vegetables result in significant post-harvest losses. In such situations, the reduction in post-harvest losses of perishables becomes more essential in countries like India. If these losses are minimised by handling and storing the produce carefully, the following gains can be realised:

Vegetables consist of a large group of plants consumed as food. These represent complex commodities those include roots, stems, leaves, petioles, bulbs, tubers, corms, rhizomes, flowers buds, immature flowers, seedlings, immature and mature fruits and immature, partially mature and mature seeds of plants (Walker, 1988). Vegetables form an important part of human diet, providing essential minerals, vitamins, fibers and very special phytochemicals and they add a variety to the human diet (Singh, 2007). The consumption of vegetables has increased significantly since the consumers have now become more health-conscious (Cruess, 1958; Brackett, 1987a). Vegetables are cultivated in open fields, greenhouses and soil free hydroponic systems. In terms of retail, vegetables can be sold in a fresh or minimally processed form to provide a ready to eat product.

Vegetables are derived from various parts of plants, and it is sometimes useful to associate different vegetables with the parts of plant they represent. The vegetables based on their parts used as food are given below in Table 20.1.

Plant tissue culture is the cultivation of plant cells, tissues, or organs on specially formulated nutrients media under the right environmental conditions. A whole plant can be regenerated from a single cell. The history of plant tissue culture has been long and started with Haberlandt in 1902 when he proposed the culture of single plant cells, his experimentation never resulted in success. White (1943) became successful in culturing plant cells for the first time, however, Morel (1960) at the Institut National Recherche Agronomique in Versailles near Paris was first to demonstrate meristem culture technology. He successfully introduced tissue culture technology to the orchid industry and produced disease-free plants of grape. By the 1970s, plant tissue culture had become a formidable technology. Plant tissue culture technique has been around for more than 30 years and considered as an important straightforward technology for the production of disease-free high quality planting material and the rapid production of many uniform plants. Its application requires a sterile workplace, nursery, greenhouse and trained manpower.

Plant tissue culturing techniques have been especially important in the agricultural community over the past many years. During this time, plant tissue culture has effectively moved from the confines of small laboratories and has taken its place among broad scale techniques employed by agricultural industry.

Vegetables play an important role in human nutrition and health making them important in Indian agricultural economy. The productivity of vegetable crop is seriously affected by several biotic and abiotic stresses and makes the economic conditions of the Indian marginal farmers worst. Under Indian conditions, 25-40% of the total vegetable produce is going waste due to lack of post-harvest storage and processing facilities in the country. Conventional plant breeding methods have improved vegetable crop plants bringing together a wide array of genes responsible for novel productivity and quality traits. However, sometimes, genes needed for crop improvement are not available in the existing germplasm. In genetic engineering, individual genes affecting the traits of economic importance are introduced in commercial cultivars. It is a targeted approach to improve the crop plants, which attempts to avoid the transfer of large blocks of genetic material. It requires identification and cloning of desirable gene and its subsequent transfer in plant species for improvement. Transgenic technologies offer many scientific advantages in breeding for improved vegetable crop quality and performance. However, very few genetically engineered horticultural crops have been released to farmers. As of 2005, one thousand million acres of transgenic crops have been planted globally covering 40% of the United States land area out of which 75% of the area is devoted to cotton, 50% to corn and 85% to soybeans in the United States of America (ISAAA, 2006).

We live in a knowledge economy, where ideas generated by talented people and the inventions they make are the new currency. Research and innovation are now seen as the key differentiating factors determining the market value of a product or service. The emphasis today has graduated from cost arbitrage and quality deliverables to Intellectual property (IP) creation and research and development. Intellectual or Intangible property is the creation of human mind. An intellectual property under protection by law is intellectual property right (IPR). Intellectual property is an important business asset giving significant competitive advantages. Intellectual properties are protected by giving time bound restriction to inventor, owner, author, originator, or plant breeder to use, sell, share, or distribute intellectual asset. These are exclusive rights to the owner and give ability for a lawsuit against others for infringement of IP owner. It is also a marketable asset, which can be licensed out to a third party bringing income to the business in the form of license payments and royalties. Intellectual property rights are legal rights, which result from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields. These rights give statutory expression to the moral and economic rights of creators in their creations. Intellectual property rights safeguard the creators and other producers of intellectual goods and services by granting them certain time-limited rights to control the use made of those productions. These rights also promote creativity, dissemination, application of their results and encourage fair-trading, which contributes to economic and social development.

Climate Change has emerged as one of the most serious environmental concerns of recent times. The most imminent climatic change is increase in atmospheric temperature due to increased levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O) and hydrochlorofluoro carbons (HCFCs). Because of increasing concentrations of the greenhouse gases in atmosphere, there is much concern about future changes in the climate system viz., Atmosphere, Lithosphere, Biosphere, Hydrosphere and Cryosphere. Direct or indirect effects on the society linked sectors like water, forestry, agriculture, animal agriculture, fisheries, land and marine biodiversity and health due to climate change/variability are many-fold and economic impact of climate change is enormous. The recurrent drought and desertification threaten seriously the livelihood of over 1.2 billion people who depend on land for most of their needs. The global economy has adversely been influenced due to droughts and floods, cold and heat waves, forest fires, landslips and mudslips, icestorms, duststorms, hailstorms, thunder clouds associated with lightning and cloudbursts, unusual rains and the sea level rise (Fig.1.1). Increase in aerosols (atmospheric pollutants) due to emission of greenhouse gases including black carbon and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs), Ozone depletion and UV-B filtered radiation, eruption of volcanoes, the “human hand” in deforestation in the form of forest fires and loss of wetlands in the process of imbalanced development are causal factors for climate variability and change. The carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration was in the steady state at 280 ppm till the pre industrial period (1850). It was rising since then at the alarming rate due to industrialization and burning of fossil fuels and the concentration of carbon dioxide is almost currently touching more than 400 ppm. Global increases in CO₂ concentrations are due primarily to fossil fuel use, with land-use change providing another significant but smaller contribution. The loss of forest cover and wetlands, which normally intercept rainfall and allow it to be absorbed by the soil, causes precipitation to reach across the land, eroding top soil, causing floods and droughts. Paradoxically, the lack of trees also exacerbates drought in dry years by attaining soil to dry out more quickly. For the first time the world over felt the effects of global warming and climate change during the year 1998 in the form of weather related disasters.

Natural disasters are of meteorological or hydrometeorological origin. Disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis are occasional, but rainfall-related hazards, flood or drought, are very frequent and thus call for proper monitoring of large-scale rainfall variation, and better manage- ment and planning to combat the problem(s). Variation in rainfall is very large spatially and temporally compared to any other atmospheric parameter, such as pressure or temperature. The large temporal variability in the Indian rainfall has produced frequent flood/ drought and periods of above/below normal rainfall for several centuries past. Areas of high rainfall and runoff are flooded in the summer monsoon season whereas others face water stress and drought conditions. The influence of global warming on rainfall variations over India is reported in numerous observational (Singh et al., 1991, 1992) and modelling studies (Lal, 1994). Though considerable rainwater enters the Indian territory from the Himalayan area, the major hydrological activities and water resources of the country are due to in situ rainfall occurrences, mostly summer monsoon rainfall during June–September. During a normal hydrological wet season the country receives 2911.064 bcm (billion cubic metres) rainwater of which 1856.947 bcm evaporates and 1054.117 bcm enters into surface hydrological processes (surface storage, streamflow/riverflow and deep aquifer storage) (Ranade et al., 2008). Rainfall events display large spatial variability due to variation in intensity, frequency and geographical location of the rain-producing weather systems, such as circular systems (low, depression, tropical cyclone and mid-tropospheric cyclone), linear systems (trough, meander, squall line and convergence zone) and wave disturbances (easterly and westerly waves). Rainfall in other seasons is equally important to monitor, though restricted to some parts of the country, such as winter rainfall over the extreme north, summer thunder showers over the southwest peninsula and northeast India, and post-monsoon rainfall over the south peninsula.

Food security is one of the most important issues during this century under the projected climate change scenario. The world is facing severe food crisis due to weather vagaries as a part of global warming and climate change. Many countries are under severe food crisis during the crisis of weather abnormalities since 75 per cent of world’s population is dependent on agricultural activities for their livelihood. Therefore, there is an urgent need to produce more and more foodgrains at the global as well as national levels to meet the food requirement of growing population under the projected climate change scenario. There has been a major decline in world rice production since late 2007 due to various reasons including global warming and climate change in top rice producing countries. Deficit monsoon in India results to less foodgrains production including rice as the area under cultivation was less. Floods are also not uncommon in many States of India. Andhra Pradesh, one of the major rice producing states of India, was affected first by drought and then by floods. Thus rice production decline in India was a real set back in 2009. Similar was the case in 2010 due to excess rain during monsoon and floods during NE monsoon across the rice growing regions. At the same time, Philippines got hit by two major typhoons in September-October, 2009 causing damage to rice crop on ground. Approximately one million tonnes of rice in storage also got damaged. These events resulted to low world rice production including India in 2009. The immediate impacts of global warming and climate change on rice production systems and food security will be felt in the form of adverse effects of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, heat and cold waves, hailstorms and cyclones on rice production. Less immediate but significant impacts are anticipated due to changes in mean temperatures, increasing weather extremes and sea level rising. West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, Karnataka and Haryana are the major rice producing states in the Country. More than 50 per cent of the total rice production comes from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. Although the country exports several varieties of rice, many scientists have expressed concern that current Indian rice production techniques cannot sustain the growing domestic population. In the event of projected climate change scenario, foodgrains production is likely to be under threat. Rapid urbanization, desertification, environmental issues, decline of agricultural lands and shifting of cropping patterns led to less foodgrains production. Apart from this, monsoon behaviour, its timely onset, further advancement, distribution of rainfall and occurrences of droughts and floods determine the foodgrains production in India. Long breaks in monsoon during July-August results to drought like situation in the Country as experienced in 2002, 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2015. The saying “Indian agriculture is a gamble of monsoon” is true as it is solely dependent on monsoon. A shift is noticed in India that the area under horticultural crops is increasing at the cost of area under foodgrains. This is one way beneficial to farmers since they can withstand against droughts during monsoon season and sustain horticultural production while not so in the case of foodgrian crops.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its fifth assessment report (AR5) stated that warming of the climate system is unequivocal and is more pronounced since the 1950s. The atmosphere and oceans warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and rise in sea level is noticed. Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850 and the globally averaged combined land and ocean surface temperature data show a warming of 0.85°C over the period 1880 to 2012. The recent years viz., 2015, 2016 and 2017 were the hottest years on record. The warming trend in India since 1961 has indicated an increase of 0.9°C, which is likely to impact many crops, negatively impacting food production. There are already evidences of negative impacts on yields of wheat and paddy in northern India due to increased temperature, water stress, and reduction in number of rainy days. Coastal agriculture has the onus of providing livelihood to nearly 20 % of Indian population. The water logging and coastal salinity are the major factors affecting the agricultural output from the regions. During the past decade, frequency of the extreme events such as droughts, cyclone and hailstorms increased, with 2002, 2004, 2009, 2012, and 2014 being severe droughts. Frequent cyclones and severe hailstorms in various central and southern Indian states and drought prone areas have become common. Eastern part of the country is affected by sea water intrusion. Reduced food grain productivity, loss to vegetable and fruit crops, fodder scarcity, shortage of drinking water to animals during summer, forced migration of animals, severe loss to poultry and fishery sectors were registered due to the climatic stresses, threatening the livelihoods of rural poor particularly in the coastal regions of the country.

Climate change projections for Indian subcontinent up to 2100 indicate an increase in temperature by 2-4⁰C, with different regions expected to experience differential changes in the amount of rainfall. India will experience an increase in mean and extreme precipitation during monsoon. This will increase both floods and drought. Freshwater resources will be affected due to combination of climate change and unsustainable practices. It is projected that Indian agriculture will lose over US $7 billion by 2030. There will be large reductions in wheat yield in the Indo-Gangetic plain; and substantial increase in heat stress for rice, affecting yield in the country. Coastal flooding will affect people and agriculture and also affect tourism in India. Some of the fish and other marine animals will face extinction by 2050, affecting fishing community. Glaciers in Himalaya continue to shrink affecting run-off and water resources downstream. Impacts of global climate change will be felt among the populations, predominantly on subsistence and smallholder farmers. Since agriculture currently contributes about 17 % of India’s gross domestic product (GDP), a negative impact on production implies cost of climate change to roughly range from 0.7% to 1.35% of GDP per year especially with rural India. The Indian agriculture production system faces the daunting task of feeding 17.5% of the global population with only 2.4% of land and 4% of water resources at its disposal. India is more vulnerable to climate change in view of the different vulnerabilities such as heat stress, cold waves and seasonal flooding in northern India; seasonal flooding, sea water intrusion, soil salinity and severe drought in eastern India; drought, salinity, severe cyclones and scarcity monsoon in Southern India.

Climate risk management in the semi-arid tropics (SAT) is one of the major challenges to achieving food security and development in India and large parts of sub-Saharan Africa and also in the case of Australia. Climate-induced production risk associated with the current season-to-season variability of rainfall is a major barrier in making rainfed agriculture sustainable and viable farm business. Since season outcomes are uncertain, even with the best climate information, farmers have limited flexibility in applying management with confidence. In fact in risky environments, farmers most often respond by adapting a risk averse strategy and are reluctant to invest in even risk reducing measures (Leathers and Quiggin 1991). In the SAT agro-ecologies, there are a limited range of enterprise or crop options to consider which may be further restricted by cultural traditions, food preferences or market opportunities.While there are fundamental differences between large scale commercial farms in Australia compared to the predominantly smallholder resource poor farms found in India, when it comes to climate risk management in the SAT, there are many commonalities. The purpose of this paper is therefore to (i) establish a framework for managing climate variability and transforming farming systems to be more resilient and sustainable for future climates; and (ii) provide some case study examples from climate risk management in low rainfall cropping system in Australia and consider how they may be applied in smallholder systems of the SAT.

The State of Kerala has witnessed an unprecedented and unusual flood which devastated the entire State during August 2018 after the notorious 1924 flood, popularly known as the flood of 1099. Heavy rainfall from 14 to18 August 2018 led to flash floods across the State. This was aggravated by the dam opening and subsequent water level in the downstream of the rivers. 33 dams were opened across the State. This has caused the river water to flow into the inland areas. Rivers overflowed and inundated the river side villages and towns. It was reported that the water levels at many places were of the order of 20 feet. Landslides were the major threat that claimed many human lives. A chain of mud slip/land slide events took place during the heavy rainfall period at the time of flood across the mid and high lands of the State, which are ecologically sensitive areas. Even before the heavy rainfall events started on 14^th August, 2018 there were major rainfall events on August 8^thand 9th. On 9^thAugust 2018, Nilambur (Malappuram District) recorded extremely heavy rainfall of 400 mm which is a record rainfall in 24 hours as far as the State is concerned. The monsoon season from June to September 2018 ended with 23.4 per cent excess rainfall, with August rainfall was the highest (96 per cent of the normal) from 1^stAugust to 19^thAugust (excess of 164 per cent against the normal). The Govt. of Kerala has estimated the overall huge loss to the State due to the unprecedented flood was of the order of more than Rs.30000/- crore. Agricultural sector was the worst affected. It is estimated that the loss in the agricultural sector was Rs.5000/- crore. Paddy, vegetables and banana were the worst affected due to unprecedented floods. In contrast, low monsoon rainfall, followed by weak post monsoon led to severe hydrological droughts as experienced in 1983,1987,1999,2002,2004,2012,2015 and 2016. It is a threat to plantation crops’ production in Kerala. The monsoon rainfall deficits in recent years were 2002(-32.8%), 2003(-17.8%), 2004(-27.7%), 2012(-21.8%), 2015(-21.8%) and 2016(-29.6%) against the long period average of 1922mm. Kharif droughts are common in India due to monsoon breaks while summer droughts in Kerala. In the absence of northeast monsoon and summer showers, prolonged dry spell results to summer drought, which adversely affects plantation crops’ production to a large extent in Kerala.

Tamil Nadu has unique physiography with western and eastern Ghats on the west and northwest, Bay of Bengal in the east and Indian Ocean to the south. Tamil Nadu has high dependence on natural resources and hence faces the threat of climate change and its impacts. Available evidence shows that there is high probability of increase in the frequency and intensity of climate related natural hazards (Stephen, 2012). Out of 13 million hectares of geographical area, about 7 million hectares of land is under cultivation. Of this 55 per cent is irrigated and rest is under rain fed / dry lands. In Tamil Nadu, ground water has been harnessed fully and dry land productivity is found oscillating with ruling variability in seasonal monsoon rain and hence agricultural productivity is always under stake. To improve agricultural productivity, Tamil Nadu has been divided into seven agro climatic zones viz., North Eastern zone, North Western zone, Western Zone, Cauvery Delta zone, the Southern zone, High rainfall zone and High Altitude and Hilly zone. Tamil Nadu is vulnerable to increase in temperature and sea level rise with change in climate as a result of accumulation of green gas gases beyond the threshold level in the atmosphere at the global level (TNSAPCC, 2014). United Nations Organization (UNO) defines vulnerability as the extent to which a natural or social system is susceptible to sustaining damage from climate change process and vulnerability is a function of the sensitivity of the system to change in climate, adaptive capacity of the said system (natural or social) and the degree of exposure of the system to climate hazards (UNFCCC, 2008). Climate change is one of the biggest challenge to food security, but it is also an opportunity for the scientists and farmers to innovate and adapt. More than 70 per cent of the population in Tamil Nadu are engaged in agriculture and are facing the threat of climate change. The food grain productivity need to be increased by 130 per cent by 2050 to meet the demand of growing population. The Government of Tamil Nadu is moving towards the goal of doubling the food production and tripling the income of the farming community in a sustainable way through effective management of natural resources including soil and water. This could be achieved by practicing climate smart agriculture that aims to help find new ways to adapt to changing climate. This process would increase agricultural productivity and farm income sustainably and equitably and simultaneously helping food system pillars and farmer’s livelihoods and at the same time minimizing agriculture’s green house gas emissions. Each and every farm can become climate smart unit for promoting sustainable weather based farming practices, using inputs more efficiently and effectively to grow more and building market where farmers can access what they need and sell any surplus of what they produce.

The State of Karnataka is located between 11.50° to 18.50° N latitudes and 74.25° to 78.50° E longitudes and covers an area of 19.1 m ha which accounts for 5.8 percent of the total geographical area (TGA) of the country. Out of the total 19.1 m Ha in Karnataka the net cultivated area (201011) was 10.5 M Ha, net irrigated area 3.49 m Ha and net rainfed cultivated area 7.01 m ha. Karnataka has the largest area under rainfed agriculture (Fig. 8.1). Nearly 55% of total food grain production and 74% of oilseeds production come from rainfed agriculture in Karnataka. Therefore rainfed agriculture plays an important role in total food grain production in the state. Further the rainfed agriculture has substantial untapped potential, which can be brought to use by increasing the crop yields in the dry land areas through the adoption of proper dryland production technologies. The climate of the state is determined mainly by the geographical location with respect to the Sea, monsoon winds and physiography. Karnataka State has subhumid to humid climate on the west coast and western ghats and semiarid to arid (very warm) climate in central and northern districts of plateau region. The year is divided into four seasons viz., winter (December to February), summer (March to May); SouthWest monsoon (June to September) and NorthEast monsoon (October to November). The occurrence of rainfall and its spatial distribution is highly variable and not dependable. Rainfall contribution is very high, from Southwest monsoon season. It is seen that the annual rainfall is highest (5051mm) over the western ghats and lowest (408mm) in the eastern parts of Chitradurga district. Taluk wise annual rainfall variation is increasing over most of the taluks in south interior Karnataka. More than 2/3rd of the state receives less than 750 mm of rainfall. The atmospheric temperature in the state ranges from 23°C to 43°C in summer and 9 °C to 27 °C in winter. Hailstorms are common in plateau region of the state during premonsoon period.

The extreme weather events of the present day and the expected future climate scenarios at global and regional scales have been attributed to the changes in the atmospheric chemical composition and the massive amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by humans since the industrial revolution, bringing about the global warming and resulting in Climate Change. Further, the natural disasters like flash floods are attributed to the highly conspicuous human interventions with nature – the earth and its atmosphere. The parody of the situation is that, while the GHGs sourcing countries are mainly the developed ones, the sink of the result are the agrariandominated and ecosensitive economies of the tropics. Invariably, tropical regions are to be affected the most, because, on the one hand the general circulation of the atmosphere directly and naturally causes divergence of the polluted air from extra tropical regions towards tropics, while on the other, the industrialization within the tropical regions too would affect the local atmosphere. Karnataka State, being located well within the tropics, can be truly impacted by the climate change caused by anthropogenic sources and it is demarcated into 10 agroclimatic zones (Fig. 9.1) based on crops, soils and climate. Climate experts have warned that Karnataka is likely to be more vulnerable to climate change than other states in India. The specific impact would be in terms of warming, to the extent of 1.52.0° Celsius by 2030s under the likely highemissions scenario, compared to the preindustrial period (1880s) levels. Dependable flow in many reservoirs would be 75 per cent to 90 per cent by the middle of the present century. Reduced availability of surface +water, higher water stress for crops, floods and drought are expected to make, particularly, Kalaburgi, Raichur and Yadgir districts, vulnerable to climate change. Assessment of the impact of climate change showed that the yield of rice, maize, sorghum, red gram and ragi is likely to decline by the 2030s, anticipating setting off a food crisis. Changes in Forest and biodiversity types imply that

The State of Andhra Pradesh in the present form came into being on June 2, 2014 as a result of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act. The state has 13 districts out of which nine are along the coast of Bay of Bengal and four are land locked in the southern part. A part of Khammam district, which is now in the Telangana state, was also added to the East and West Godavari districts of the State of Andhra Pradesh. The existing data for these two districts do not include this part and this fact is to be borne in mind. The state has a geographical area of 1.602 lakh km² with a population of 49.83 million. The state in the current form is more agrarian compared to the undivided state as about 62 per cent of population depends on agriculture as a source of livelihood. Yet, the contribution of agriculture to the state’s gross domestic product is only 17 per cent. Though the state is known as ‘rice bowl of India’, not all is well with agriculture in the state. Some parts, especially the coastal districts, are prone to incidence of cyclones and floods while some other districts, Rayalaseema districts, are chronically drought-prone. The observation of ‘crop holiday’ when farmers chose not to raise rice in the two Godavari districts in the recent past is a pointer to the problems associated with agriculture in the state. Land degradation associated with indiscriminate use of chemical inputs, sea water ingression, inadequate and undependable rainfall is some of the major problems that cause low productivity of agriculture in the state. Imperfections in the market in terms of inadequate access to markets and market information, inadequacies in market and processing infrastructure are some of the major impediments to realizing the potential returns from crop and animal production. The rising cost of inputs is another detriment to the profitability of agriculture. Aggravating all this problems is the climate change that further brings in the urgency to put in place a variety of measures that help improve productivity and profitability of agriculture. Recognizing all these dimensions, even the strategy document on transforming agriculture in Andhra Pradesh laid emphasis on making agriculture climate smart (GoAP, 2014).

Evidence is fast accumulating that the problem of climate change is of a scale not previously encountered by human societies. The scale and scope of climate change challenges to food and water security are unprecedented. World food supply is already facing significant pressures. Even without climate change, ensuring sufficient food for all in the 21^st century would be difficult enough. Climate influences food security through many channels. Climate change will increase the severity and frequency of cyclones, flooding and drought. It will intensify rainfall variability, increasing water stress, weeds, pests, and erosion and reducing soil fertility. Above certain temperature ranges, crops develop more rapidly, resulting in lower overall grain production, even moderate increases in temperature can decrease yields in major food crops. Population growth, urbanisation, higher per capita calorie intake, and increasing consumption of meat combine to put more pressure on exiting water recourses. Tension and possibly conflict over water would most likely occur even in the absence of climate change. But climate change greatly exacerbates the problem. There can be little genuine doubt that the world’s climate is changing in ways that will seriously affect the life on the earth. There is a widespread acceptance that the troposphere the lower part of the atmosphere that contains most of the world’s weather systems is becoming warmer. The vast bulk of the climate analysis supports the view that warming is due to increased emissions of particularly carbon dioxide and methane resulting from human action. There is also a growing understanding of the negative legacy of past greenhouse gas emission. Even if carbon pollution was stopped today the effects of global warming would continue to be felt for at least 50 years into the future. Climate change has significant implications for the food and water security of many of the world’s 6.7 billion inhabitants. These implications are especially severe for the 2 billion who are food insecure and/or suffer physically and intellectual limitations due to inadequate nutrition (ICTSD, 2009). In relation to India, current climate variability and future climate change at local levels, given the important climatic variations across time and space. While rainfall variability is a major factor causative to instant fluctuations in agricultural production, to overcome for this it is necessitate to move away from this conventional emphasis by also taking into account hail storms, prolonged dry spells, temperature variability and extreme temperatures. Agriculture is the primary source of revenue in the state of Maharashtra. The state has 17.4 million ha of land under cultivation while 84% of the total area under agriculture is rainfed and is directly dependent on the monsoon. A series on Marathwada’s battle with three consecutive years of drought is incomplete without understanding the impact of climate change. The rise in the country’s annual temperature by 0.7 °C and erratic climatic patterns are sure to affect the region’s agriculture which is primarily rainfed with 12 per cent area under irrigation (Dakhore et al, 2017).

Importance of rice in Konkan area is characterized by heavy rains of 100 mm per week or so over an extended period and contributes 42.9 % of total rice production in the Maharashtra State. Rice is the only suitable crop that can be grown under puddled soil conditions, i.e. with standing water over bunded fields. Tansplanting method of rice is commonly followed by most of the farmers in this region. Puddled rice is said to be of assistance in mitigating the effects of floods. The problem of weeds is minimal in puddled rice culture. Thus, rice serves as a livelihood crop for millions of small, and marginal farmers in Konkan who can afford only low-cost technologies. Even though the crop is robust and versatile, it has faced drawbacks in terms of low yield and reduction in acreage. In Konkan region of Maharshtra, there are two agro climatic zones viz., North Konkan coastal zone comprising three districts viz., Thane, Raigad and Greater Mumbai and South Konkan Coastal Zone comprising two districts viz., Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg. Ratnagiri district receives the highest rainfall of > 3500 mm while Thane district receives the lowest rainfall (2000-2500 mm) in this region. Sindhudurg and Raigad districts receives 3000-3500 and 2500-3000 mm rainfall, respectively. It is generally observed that South Konkan districts record high rice yields in spite of low area while reverse in North Konkan districts. The district wise area and production of rice in Konkan region as the mean for the period of 1997-98 to 2014-15 revealed that, Thane occupies largest average area of 133822 ha under rice, while Raigad has the highest production of rice (308555 tonnes) and Sindhudurga district has the high productivity of 2.75 t ha^-1. The trends in area, production and productivity of rice for the period 1997-98 to 2014-15 shows significant decreasing trend in paddy area while in case of production and productivity the trend is increasing. Paddy area decreased from 425000 ha in 1997-98 to only 311300 ha in 2014-15, while productivity increased from 2.44 tonnes ha^-1 in 1997-98 to 2.88 tonnes ha^-1 in 2014-15. In this context, it is necessary to understand the agro meteorological constraints for improving the yield and simultaneously reduce the fall in cultivated area.

In order to achieve maximum and sustainable crop production from available farm resources, it is essential to have proper knowledge of the agro-climatic resources of the location/region. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the climatic conditions would help in determining the suitable agricultural management practices for taking advantage of the favorable weather conditions and avoiding or minimizing risks due to adverse weather conditions. better planning of cropping pattern, developing irrigation and drainage plans for an area (Chaudhary et al. 2015). Hence, trends of temperature and rainfall are studied in this section with possible impact studies on rice production for Chhattisgarh state. Challenges of rainfed rice production can be understood through trend studies of key weather variables. Analysis of rainfall in the context of rainfed rice production in Chhattisgarh state has been carried out. Analysis has been done at Department of Agrometeorology under All India Co-ordinated Research Project (Raipur) to characterize the key weather parameters statistics.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has confirmed that change in climate system is gradually leaving a strong impact. Observations undoubtedly show that there is increasein global temperatures, wide spread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level. Global climate has shown warming of 0.89 [0.69 to 1.08] °C over the period 1901–2012 which is mainly attributed to anthropogenic activities. Scientific findings indicate that warming is more pronounced than expected and the impact would be particularly severe in the tropical areas, which mainly consist of developing countries, including India (Shukla, 2016). Thus, climate change is a great challenge which is continuously being faced by the sustainable economic growth of the India. Climate sensitive sectors like agriculture, forestry, hydrology oriented sectors faces major threat due to projected changes in climate. India Meteorological Department (IMD) in 2012 reportedincreasing temperature trends during last 112 years and increase in heavy rainfall events and decrease in low and medium rainfall events over India. Changes inrainfall and temperatures have also been reported at various place by Dash et al., 2009, Arora et al., 2005, De et al., 2005, 2008, MoEF 2010, Jones and Briffa., 1992, Kothawaleet al., 2010, Tyagi and Goswami., 2009 and others. Agriculture is likely to be hit by climate change and the Indian economy mostly agrarian based will get worst impact.Several international and national level interventions have taken initiatives foranalyzing the behavioral pattern of climate change.However, it was felt that there is a need for the regional level analysisparticularly, within the state in order tofindtrends that depicts immediate attention at root level. Keeping this in view, many researchers carried out studies at regional level. Systematic collection of literature with reference to climate change in regional level over most of the states of India is being done. These assessments will help in finding relationship between climate change and the vulnerability to human life in long term.

India, as a developing country has reasons to be concerned about the adverse impact of climate change on its economy. A large part of its population depends on climate sensitive sectors for livelihoods which makes it highly vulnerable to climate change. Climate change can have serious impact on its crops, forests, coastal regions, etc. which can in turn affect the achievement of its important national development goals. The issue of climate change cannot however be taken up without linking it to developmental needs such as poverty, health, energy access and education. Traditionally climate change experts have focused on mitigation measures, adaptation measures have also been acknowledged of late as effective and equitable means to deal with climate change impacts. Most of the mitigation measures are high in terms of technology and capital. Therefore, while developed economies choose to mitigate climate change by making heavy investments, developing economies choose to adapt (Monika and Hooda, 2018). There is increasing recognition that the world’s current progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is not occurring rapidly enough to avoid impacts from climate change in the coming century. Because of this, the world is “committed” to a certain level of global warming and therefore, subject to a degree of impacts that will require adaptive responses by nations and communities (Bizikova et al., 2008). IPCC have specific observations on India in relation to climate change and its impact in its AR 5 Report. Several workers analyzed monthly, seasonal, annual temperature (1901-2007) and rainfall (1873-2011) variability for entire India over two different spatial scales of 30 sub-divisions and 7 regions of India. The net change in rainfall and mean temperature indicates decreasing rainfall and increasing temperature in most of the months and seasons. In India, an increase in temperature over the country and the subcontinent was observed. As discussed in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5^th Report (IPCC, 2014), the global ocean will continue to warm during the 21^st century, with the strongest warming projected for the surface in tropical and Northern Hemisphere sub-tropical regions. In addition, changes in precipitation will not be uniform (Pachauri and Meyer, 2014). In the light of these projections, it can be assumed that climatic pattern of Haryana can also undergo considerable changes (Anurag et al., 2017). Increasing trend of annual rainfall in Haryana was also reported by India Meteorological Department (Rathore et al., 2013).

Climate change is one of the most important global environmental challenges facing humanity and as per the instrumental records, the earth’s climate system has demonstrably changed on both global and regional scales since the preindustrial era. Further evidence shows that most of the warming (of 0.1°C per decade) observed over the last 50 years, is attributable to human activities. The levels of greenhouse gases namely carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) have increased markedly as a result of human activities. The CO₂ concentration in atmosphere is now more than 400 ppm and the decadal increase is from 0.86 ppm per year to 1.99 ppm per year (Table 16.1) which is the highest ever. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) projects that the global mean temperature may increase between 1.4 and 5.8 ^oC by 2100. This warming of the earth-atmosphere system is expected to have severe impacts on the global hydrological system, ecosystems, sea level, crop production and related processes. Agriculture sector is the most vulnerable entity in light of the global warming and its impacts. Global mean temperatures of today are already about three quarters of a degree warmer than that of preindustrial times, and even if carbon emissions were completely stopped today the warming trend would continue for many decades. Moreover, the United Nations (2015) report has projected the world population to increase from current 7.3 billion to 8.5 billion (16%) by 2030, 9.7 billion (33%) in 2050 and 11.2 billion (53%) in 2100. With more population to feed the agriculture of tomorrow will be at cross roads if it is not sustainable as well as productive. Since the beginning of the early civilizations, agriculture and its adaptation to climate change or anything else is an ongoing process. On a long term basis, the agricultural crops will have to adapt to at least a warming of about 2^oC. These low cost adaptations in agricultural crops (such as changes in sowing periods / dates, cultivars, fertilizer and irrigation use and crop management practices) can reduce the impact on crop yields by often more than half, relative to the cases of no-adaptation.

The Jammu and Kashmir State lies in the extreme North of the Himalayas and constitutes about 67.5 per cent of the North West Himalayan region. The State is predominantly a mountainous state with all the major Himalayan ranges and trans-Himalayas adequately represented. The State of Jammu and Kashmir located in the north Western corner of India, extends between 32^o-17' and of 37^o-50' North parallels of latitude and 73^o-26' and 80^o-30' East of meridians of longitudes and 81^o East of Greenwich. The State on the basis of physiography may be divided into three main regions (i) outer Himalayas which comprise of Jammu province (ii) lesser Himalayas which comprises of Kashmir Valley and (iii) inner Himalayas which comprise of Ladakh province. Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions have distinct agro climatic characteristics. Jammu region has two different climatic zones depending primarily on altitude. Lower hills & plains bear subtropical climate with hot dry summer lasting from April to July. The summer monsoon commences around first fortnight of July and fading away in early September. This is followed by dry spell from September to November. Winter is mild and temperature seldom touches freezing point. In the high reaches of Chenab valley, the climate is moist temperate, winter is severe and varied quantity of snow is received. The Kashmir valley with Pir Panjal Mountains on its South and Karakoram on its North receives precipitation in the form of snow due to western disturbances. The winter is severely cold and temperature often goes below 0°C. Summers are warm and dry and autumn is again cool and sometimes wet. Ladakh is situated in eastern mountain range of Kashmir. This is one of the highest ranges in the world. It is a cold desert receiving very little precipitation. The temperature remains below the freezing point during winter due to its high altitude.

Agriculture is very intensely influenced by weather and climate. While farmers are often compliant in managing weather and annual variability, there is however a high degree of adaptation to the local climate. This may be in the form of conventional infrastructure, native agricultural practices or personal experience. Climate change an in this way be relied upon to affect the agriculture, possibly threatening established characteristics of farming systems and provide chances for improvements. The role of climate change in influencing human activities and the natural environment is all around acknowledged. This may go from an extreme event enduring just a couple of hours (i.e. hurricane, thunderstorm and showers) through to the multi-year dry spells (Maracchi et al., 2005). Increase in concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere further contribute to climate change. This results in a strong impact on human activities and natural environments. Essential areas, for example agriculture and forestry, will be more susceptible than auxiliary and tertiary segments, for example manufacturing and retailing (Parry et al., 1998). Agriculture is the fundamental activity by which people live and survive on the earth. Evaluating the impacts of climate change on agriculture is a vital job. In developed as well as developing nations, the influence of climate on crops and domesticated animals regardless of water system, enhanced plant and creature cross breeds and the developing utilization of synthetic manures. The continuous dependency of agricultural production on light, heat, water and other climatic factors, the reliance of a great part of the total populace on farming exercises, and the noteworthy extent and quick rates of conceivable atmosphere changes all consolidate to make the requirement for an exhaustive thought of the potential effects of atmosphere on worldwide agriculture (Rosenzweig, and Liverman, 1992).

The State of Himachal Pradesh encompasses a geographical area of 55.7 lakh ha and is situated between 31°22’40" and 33°12’40"N latitude and 75°45’55" and 77°10’20"E longitude. The state is bordered by Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west, and Haryana on the south-west (Fig. 19.1). About 12 per cent of the state area is under agriculture which is mostly (80 per cent) rain fed. Wheat, maize, rice, and barley are the principal crops. In state, there are 12 districts, viz., Bilaspur, Chamba, Hamirpur, Kangra, Kinnaur, Kullu, Lahaul & Spiti, Mandi, Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur and Una. About 20 per cent of the area is under forest cover. It is rich in biodiversity of flora and fauna. Nearly 27 per cent of the area of the state is covered under permanent pastures. The state is endowed with a wide range of physiography/landform, climate, vegetation and geology which have influence on genesis of soils. The soils are mostly shallow, medium deep to deep, well/excessively drained, sandy, sandy-skeletal, loamy-skeletal, coarse-loamy and fine-loamy, calcareous as well as non-calcareous with low available water capacity. The State is the biggest montane ecosystem in India situated in northern part of the country. It is seventeenth largest state in terms of area and twentieth in population of which 65 per cent people are dependent on agriculture and 60 per cent of GDP comes from agriculture sector. Increasing temperature and reducing rainfall affecting the crop growth and crop production is a major issue everywhere in the world nowadays and this state has also not remained untouched by these prime issues of climate change. For sustainable development of agriculture in state, there was/is a need to identify and quantify climatic change where agriculture has a significant influence on both the economy and livelihood.

Bihar’s economy is highly dominated by agriculture and allied sectors. Around 85 to 90 percent of the population still lives in rural areas, where agriculture along with animal husbandry, is the main source of their livelihood. In Bihar, the gross and net sown area is estimated at 8.26 and 5.64 million hectares, respectively. Nearly 60 per cent area under cultivation in the state is rainfed (Anon, 2008). The region comes under sub-humid subtropical monsoon climate. Most of the annual rainfall (almost 85 per cent) received from south-west monsoon, occurs during June to September (Sattar, 2010). There are three crop growing seasons in the state commonly known as kharif, rabi and zaid. The important kharif season crops, which are planted in May-June and harvested in September–October, are rice, maize, sesame, sorghum and bajra. Pigeon pea is an important long duration pulse crop sown during kharif season as sole crop or intercropped with maize. The important rabi crops which are sown in October–November and harvested in February–March are wheat, rabi maize, potato, chickpea, lentil, rapeseed, mustard, barley. Zaid crops, which are cultivated in short growing season extending from March to May in between rabi and kharif seasons, are also called summer crops, which include green gram, cowpea and sesame etc. Rice, wheat, maize, pulses and oilseeds are grown in all the districts. Sugarcane is also an important annual cash crop. However, the choice of crops, their varieties and crop rotation varies across different agro climatic zones. Rainfed crops during both kharif and rabi seasons in the state mostly experience moisture stress at different phases of growth and produce lesser yield. Like most parts of the country, crop production in Bihar is largely dependent on the performance of south-west monsoon.

Climate change and its variability imposed a great threat to agriculture production and ultimately on food security. Understanding of anomalies in climatic variables is essential to make agriculture sector resilient. Jharkhand state, geographically located at 22⁰ 28’ N – 25⁰ 30’ N latitude and 83⁰ 22’ – 87⁰ 40’ E longitude with an altitude up to 1142 m above msl and having humid to sub-humid tropical monsoon type of climate, has a number of agro-climatic/physiographic constraints. The state has 3 agroclimatic sub-zones viz; Central and North Eastern Plateau sub zone (zone IV), Western Plateau sub-zone (zone V) and South Eastern Plateau sub-zone (zone VI) falling under agroecological regions XI, XII and XIII. Zone IV is having 15 districts; Zone V has 6 and Zone VI have 3 districts. Agriculture in Jharkhand is very tedious due to topographical, physiographic and climatic constraints. Vagaries of climate put greatest limitation before the agricultural production system in the State. The State enjoying nature’s gift receives fairly a high amount of annual rainfall, on an average 1400 mm annually, of which more than 80% is instantly lost through high speed surface and sub-surface run-off causing loss of fertile soil and gully formation. The State’s agriculture is virtually mono-cropped, major production being confined in kharif season (June-September) during which period 80-82% of annual rainfall is received. Raising a second crop (rabi season crop Oct-Nov. to March-April) in most part of Jharkhand is almost impossible because of a very meager irrigation potential (8-10% only). In absence of proper and adequate water management practices crop failure during rainy season in case of prolonged dry spells, virtually no crop during rabi season and drinking/domestic water crisis in the months of March to mid June have become a common feature in Jharkhand. Anomalies/irregularities in monsoon and its distribution (prolonged dry spells, agricultural drought etc.) have been affecting the Jharkhand agriculture since long. Now, in recent years, the effect of global climate change due to global warming has started appearing very prominently in Jharkhand. Increase in frequency and severity of extreme weather events like heat wave (unexpected rise in temperature in summer months, right from mid February onwards), hail storm, drastic decrease in pre-monsoon convectional rainfall and cold wave/frost in winter etc. are putting additional climatic constraints before the Jharkhand agriculture.

The Northeast Region (NER) of India consists of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura, covering an area of 255168 km². The area is characterized by rich biodiversity, heavy precipitation and high seismicity. Although the contribution from agricultural sector towards gross domestic product has declined, yet it remains the predominant sector for Indian Economy. Over 75% of the people of NE India directly depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Therefore, better performance of agriculture has a direct and multiplier effect across the economy of the region. Because of climate change the rain fed agriculture is facing a greater risk as it is resource poor and having limited flexibility for adaptation. Under changing scenarios there is increase in demand for fresh water and nutrient requirement, increase in soil erosion and nutrient losses affecting soil health, intensification of pest, disease and weed problems, reduction in nutritional quality and low input use efficiency. Continuous mono-cropping and the associated excessive tillage, inadequate erosion control measures and large scale slash and burn cultivation (Jhum) resulted in significant environmental damage and a non-sustainable crop production system in the region. The Jhum or slash- and- burn cultivation is very much prevalent in the region. This practice involves reckless slashing and burning of forest area for cultivation leading to release of carbon dioxide and significant amount of other Green House Gases such as nitrous oxide. The intensive ploughing of the cleared mountain makes the land very much susceptible for erosion leading to soil degradation and loss of soil organic carbon. The climate change is likely to add more burden to already struggling agricultural sector of the state. The climate change is a concern to researchers and farmers because it would lead to change in insect and disease dynamics i.e. the distribution, abundance and management of insect and pathogens. Moreover, there would be increase and variation of livestock disease and adaptation, and decline in soil health. The magnitude of impact varies with geographic location and is tailored to local circumstances and ecosystems. The erratic rainfall trend in the recent past lead to the failure in planning proper water management techniques and also makes the prediction of disease outbreak difficult in this region. Agro- climatic conditions of NEH are conductive for the development and multiplication of insect pests and their natural enemies. Due to climate change rice insect pests continue to be one of the major constraints to rice production, which causes about 20% yield losses. Maize is the second most important crop in the region. It is primarily grown in the Jhum land and terraced area in NEH region. In moisture stress area, occurrence of cutworm (Agrotis flammatra and Agrotis segetum) was found very serious. The important pulses grown in the region are pigeon pea, cowpea, rice beans, rajamash, Bengal gram, mung bean, lentil, fababean and lathyrus etc. Due to favourable climatic conditions, pulse crop are infested with number of pests throughout the cropping season.

Eastern India is frequently affected by weather hazards, such as drought, flood and heat wave. The region consists of Orissa, West Bengal, and Bihar. The coastal states of Orissa and West Bengal frequently face cyclones, while Bihar and eastern U.P. face cold wave. Due to unfavorable seasonal weather, crop productivity is poor. However, the recent change in climate induced by global warming has further threatened the agricultural productivity in the region. Rice is the principal crop of Eastern India and rice based cropping systems has long been practiced in the region. While rice-rice is the most dominant cropping system in Orissa and West Bengal, rice-wheat is in Bihar and eastern U.P. Besides, rice-groundnut occupies a considerable area in the region. It is now doubtful whether the resilience of these cropping systems would continue sustaining the productivity under the climate change. The major aim of the proposal was to identify suitable adaptation measures of crop production under projected climate change. Climate change is expected to alter precipitation pattern, increase temperature, change in humidity level and decrease sunshine. As a result it is like to influence right from land preparation to the harvest and post harvest process. Thus the project aim was to revisiting the existing package of practices of selected cropping systems by simulation modelling, deduce suitable adaptation measures and validate these by OTC experiments.

Climate change is a multifaceted alteration of climate which is perceptibly subtle and yet continuous, nevertheless it is extremely important due its consequences on whole biome that thrives under constant or relatively unchanged climates. The effects of climate change have reached such an extent that irreversible changes in the functioning of the planet are feared. Some of the main effects of climate change with specific reference to agriculture and food production especially during the last decade are: increased occurrence of storms and floods; increased incidence and severity of droughts and forest fires; steady spreading out of frost-free intervals and potential growing season; increased frequency of diseases and insect pest attacks; and vanishing habitats of plants and animals. Currently, the world is facing a challenge of producing sufficient food from dwindling natural resource base for the constantly increasing population. Strengthening of agricultural activities through improved productivity and effective resource management is one of the key options existing as competition for land and water are increasing from non-farm sectors. In other words, more production is required from fewer natural resources under future climate scenarios. Agriculture, human health and animal health are three important pillars of global livelihood security systems and they contribute to the developing nations’ GDP significantly. While major crops and livestock world over contribute to the food security, the human resource has been a major driver of the growth in these sectors directly and indirectly. Across continents, climate influences these three pillars substantially. Climate –variability and -change are exerting additional pressure on developing countries of tropics and subtropics which are already at the threshold to cope with the increasing demand for food for increasing population pressure. Climatic disturbances in terms of increase/decrease in temperature, high intensity rainfalls, droughts, floods, hail storms and other extreme weather events in these areas will cause significant yield declines in major food grain crops. Several forecasts for the coming decades project changes in precipitation resulting in more frequent droughts and floods, increase in atmospheric CO₂ and temperature, widespread runoff leading to leaching of soil nutrients and reduction in freshwater availability. With the impending global climate change and the need to secure food supplies for the future, it becomes imperative to understand the consequences of climate change on the productivity of important agricultural crop species (Shanker et al 2014).

Agricultural production in India is still vulnerable to vagaries of monsoon rainfall in spite of rapid technological advancements like 1) Availability of high yielding varieties 2) Improved crop management practices and increased irrigation availability and effective control of pests and diseases and etc, over last few decades. Majority of Indian farming community which broadly comprising of small and medium farmers are often subject to climate extremes such as droughts, floods, heavy rainfall events, heat and cold waves, frost, hail storms during the crop growing season. The probabilities of occurrence of such climate extremes and associated crop damages and production losses are common in tropical countries like India. Compensation to the resource crunched farmers in the form of crop insurance seems to be the best option for speedy recovery from the losses incurred during the season. It provides security and stability to farm income by protecting the farmers’ investment in crop production and then improves their risk bearing capacities. Crop insurance scheme is based on the fundamental principle of insurance business in which risk is distributed across space and time. For successful implementation of any crop insurance scheme operating presently in the country, proper monitoring of accurate weather parameters at the identified locations throughout the crop life cycle is important. Since these ongoing schemes requires recording weather data right at the locations the existing weather network stations operated by the national agencies which are mostly located at the district head quarters are not adequate to cover the entire cropped areas, where crop is grown and insured. In order to avoid such difficulty, the government allowed few private entrepreneurs for monitoring and supply of daily weather data of high quality by adopting strictly the norms laid out by world Meteorological Organization (WMO) and India Meteorological Department (IMD). The process of monitoring,collection and supply of weather data to the insurance companies on a regular basis involves the following:

Increasing evidences over the past few decades indicate that significant changes in climate are occurring across various regions of the globe in the form of increased occurrence of extreme weather events. The significant cause to this sustained increase in climate variability, known as climate change has been a resultant of increased level of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. The reason for this increase is mainly ascribed to enhanced human activities such as industrialization, uncontrolled burning of fossil fuels, increased use of refrigerants and changed land use patterns and practices. Most significantly, the concentrations of GHGs like CO₂ has already crossed the 400 ppm mark, while other potential contributors like methane and nitrous oxide also show significant rise. As a result of the heat absorbing capacity of these gases, there has been a considerable rise in global mean temperatures, more so in the recent decade and more. The increase in mean air temperatures of the globe was 0.76⁰C during the past 100 years. This rate of increase has been higher during the past two decades and the recent period recorded the warmest years in sequence, the latest being the 2017. The impacts of the climate change are visible across all regions of the globe, in the form of increased occurrence of extreme weather events like severe droughts, floods, storms, heat waves, cold waves, high wind regimes etc. Besides the physical risks to life and increased discomfort, these events directly influence the quantity and quality of agricultural production adversely. They increase the production risks and threaten the food security of nations. Agriculture is one of the main sectors that is likely to be impacted by climate change and in a country like India, the consequences can be harsh with projections of decline in yields of major food crops due to warmer temperatures and increased drought risk in the coming decades. Thus risk characterization and risk management are critical issues in agricultural productivity management. The risks are higher in rainfed areas which are mainly dependent on the quantum and distribution of rainfall during the monsoon season of June to September over major part of the country. As against the national average of 40% of the total cropped area being irrigated, 60% of the total cropped area is still rainfed and is strongly dependent on uncertainties of monsoon. This shows that the dependency of Indian agriculture on climate is very large and as such the Indian agriculture is called a gamble in monsoon.

The District-wise weekly agroadvisory service based on medium range weather forecasting (3 to 10 days) has been made operational by the State Agricultural Universities in collaboration with National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), India Meteorological Department. The Agroadvisory Bulletin (AAB) contains three parts. The first part of AAB consists of weather events occurred during the past week and weather forecast for three days ahead. These forecasts provide expected weather on cloud amount, rainfall, average wind speed, wind direction, maximum and minimum temperatures and cumulative rainfall. The second part contains the factual information on the varieties of crops, their state and stage, ongoing agricultural operations and occurrence of insect pest and diseases of crops. The final and third part of the AAB provides information on agroadvisory to be taken up as farm operations during the ensuing week. The AABs are prepared by the Agrometeorological Field Units (AMFUs) in consultation with the scientists belonging to various disciplines and Agricultural Officers of the locality. Such AABs are being prepared and issued in English as well in local languages. The AMFUs functioning across the Country (more than 130 AMFUs) attempt the weekly agroadvisory service very effective and operational from time to time with simple models developed in the concerned universities for sustenance of crop production against the ill effects of climate change/variability to a considerable extent. Agroadvisory service is based on weather forecasting and agromet products play a major role in AABs for the benefit of farmers. As such the AABs revolve mostly around agronomic practices rather than based on agromet products. Some of the typical tools prepared in Kerala Agricultural University are quoted for guidance and such models may be implemented wherever they are relevant for betterment of Agromet Advisory Services as a part of climate risk management in Agriculture.

Natural disasters are extreme events within the earth’s system (lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere or atmosphere) which differs substantially from the mean, resulting in death or injury to humans, and damage or loss of valuable good, such as buildings, communication systems, agricultural land, forest, natural environment. They are a profound impact of the natural environment upon the socio-economic system (Alexander, 1993). This impact may be rapid, as in the case of earthquakes, or slow as in the case of drought. It is important to distinguish between the terms disaster and hazard. A potentially damaging phenomenon (hazard), such as an earthquake by itself is not considered a disaster when it occurs in uninhabited areas. It is called a disaster when it occurs in a populated area, and brings damage, loss or destruction. Natural disasters occur in many parts of the world, although each type of disaster is restricted to certain regions. Natural disasters are events which are caused by purely natural phenomena and bring damage to human societies (such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes). Mitigation of natural disasters can be successful only when detailed knowledge is obtained about the expected frequency, character, and magnitude of hazardous events in an area. Many types of information that are needed in natural disaster management have an important spatial component. Spatial data are data with a geographic component, such as maps, aerial photography, satellite imagery, GPS data, rainfall data, borehole data etc. Many of these data will have a different projection and co-ordinate system, and need to be brought to a common map-basis, in order to superimpose them. We now have access to information gathering and organising technologies like remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS), which have proven their usefulness in disaster management. Remote sensing and GIS provides a data base from which the evidence left behind by disasters that have occurred before can be interpreted, and combined with other information to arrive at hazard maps, indicating which areas are potentially dangerous. The zonation of hazard must be the basis for any disaster management project and should supply planners and decision-makers with adequate and understandable information. Remote sensing data, such as satellite images and aerial photos allow us to map the variabilities of terrain properties, such as vegetation, water, and geology, both in space and time. Satellite images give a synoptic overview and provide very useful environmental information, for a wide range of scales, from entire continents to details of a few metres. Secondly, many types of disasters, such as floods, drought, cyclones, volcanic eruptions, etc. will have certain precursors. The satellites can detect the early stages of these events as anomalies in a time series. Images are available at regular short time intervals, and can be used for the prediction of both rapid and slow disasters. When a disaster occurs, the speed of information collection from air and space borne platforms and the possibility of information dissemination with a matching swiftness make it possible to monitor the occurrence of the disaster. Many disasters may affect large areas and no other tool than remote sensing would provide a matching spatial coverage. Remote sensing also allows monitoring the event during the time of occurrence while the forces are in full swing. The vantage position of satellites makes it ideal for us to think of, plan for and operationally monitor the event. GIS is used as a tool for the planning of evacuation routes, for the design of centres for emergency operations, and for integration of satellite data with other relevant data in the design of disaster warning systems. GIS is extremely useful in combination with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) in search and rescue operations in areas that have been devastated and where it is difficult to orientate. The impact and departure of the disaster event leaves behind an area of immense devastation. Remote sensing can assist in damage assessment and aftermath monitoring, providing a quantitative base for relief operations. In the disaster rehabilitation phase GIS is used to organise the damage information and the post-disaster census information, and in the evaluation of sites for reconstruction. Remote sensing is used to map the new situation and update the databases used for the reconstruction of an area, and can help to prevent that such a disaster occurs again. The case studies of extreme weather events - floods due to cyclones, heavy rains and drought were presented hereunder.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines Climate Change as a change the weather parameters attributed directly or indirectly to human activity, altering the composition of the global atmosphere. Human activity includes the pollution that arises from industrial activity and other sources that produce greenhouse gases. These gases, such as carbon dioxide, have the ability to absorb the spectrum of infrared light and contribute to the warming of our atmosphere. Once produced, these gases can remain trapped in the atmosphere for tens or hundreds of years.

Climate change has become real and tangible affecting people. It is a major challenge for agriculture, food security and rural livelihoods. Climate change impacts on vulnerable groups have social, economic, political, and environmental implications. The impacts of climate change are global. India is more vulnerable in view of the high population depending on agriculture, which in turn is dependent on the seasonal monsoons. India is confronted with the challenge of sustaining rapid economic growth amidst the increasing global threat of climate change. Government of India has accorded top priority for addressing climate change related concerns.

The Government formulated the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) in 2008. Climate change is a complex policy issue with major implications in terms of finance. All actions and solutions to address the adverse impact of climate change ultimately involve costs. Funding is vital in developing countries to design and implement adaptation and mitigation projects. NABARD has already taken various initiatives in addressing the challenges posed by Climate Change particularly in the areas of agriculture and rural livelihood sectors. In this direction NABARD aims to channelize national, international and private finances for adaptation and mitigation activities in India. The Green Climate Fund has been designated as an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the UNFCCC. In the context of sustainable development, the Fund aims to promote a paradigm shift towards low emission and climate-resilient development pathways by providing support to developing countries to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the impacts of climate change, taking into account the needs of those developing countries particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. The Fund will play a key role in channelizing new, additional, adequate and predictable financial resources to developing countries and will catalyze climate finance, both public and private levels. The finance is expected to meet the agreed full and incremental costs for activities to enable and support enhanced action on adaptation, mitigation, technology development and transfer (including carbon capture and storage), capacity-building and the preparation of national reports by developing countries. NABARD is accredited as National Implementing Entity in 2015 on fast track. NABARD is eligible to submit large size projects having outlay of more than USD 250 million. The National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) was established in 2015 to meet the cost of adaptation to climate change in India, particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. In keeping with the commitment of NABARD to address impact of climate change the ”Climate Change Fund” was created out of the profit of NABARD during 2016-17 for facilitating attempts to address impacts of climate change especially towards fostering sustainable development. NABARD contributes annually from its profit towards the corpus of the fund. Institution of the “Climate Change Fund” is a unique initiative of NABARD as a Development Financial Institution to foster sustainable development and contribute meaningfully towards national priorities. The objective is to promote and support activities aimed towards addressing climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation measures, awareness generation, knowledge sharing and facilitate sustainable development.

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolour (L.) Moench) is one of the most nutritional and fifth most important cereal crop after maize, wheat, rice and barley as well as a major dietary staple food crop of more than 500 million people in various countries (Ashok Kumar et al., 2011). It is considered as the “King of Millets” that extensively grown in Semi-Arid Tropics (SAT). As a coarse grain, it is used not only for human food, but also for fodder and feed for animals, and building material etc. Its grain is used to make bread, biscuits, sugar, starch, syrups, and alcohol, beer and malt products. It is a good source of energy, protein, vitamin, minerals, and trace elements. Sorghum cultivation in India probably started in the first millennium BC (Dogget, 1988). In India, sorghum is commonly known as jowar and accounts 14% of total world’s sorghum cultivated area and 8% production. India stands first in area of cultivation and second major producer until the end of 20^th century. Currently (2012-16). India stands second in cultivated area after Sudan and fourth in production after USA, Nigeria and Mexico. It is the fifth major cereal crop in India after rice, wheat, maize, and pearl millet (bajra), and accounts 6% of total cereal cultivated area and 3% of total cereal production (DES, 2016). Sorghum is cultivated in India majorly during kharif (rainy) season as a rainfed crop and in rabi (post-rainy) season under residual soil moisture/limited-irrigated conditions. Sorghum is gaining importance along the coastal belt of Andhra Pradesh as rice fallows during rabi season in place of maize due to water scarcity in recent years. Maize requires 4 to 6 irrigations while 2 to 3 irrigations in case of sorghum during the crop season for potential yields under field conditions. In this chapter,a glimpse of sorghum growing regions in India, interrelationship between climatic changes and yield of sorghum and adaptation strategies to sustain sorghum productivity in India during future climatic periods are discussed in detail.

Wheat (T. aestivum) is a staple food of the vast majority of the human population in most part of the world; Europe, West Asia, South East Asia, Americas and North Africa. It provides more nourishment than any other food crop and leads all other food crops-rice, maize and potato on a global basis. The wide varieties of food products prepared from it make the crop popular and also a reason for its expansion even to non-traditional wheat cultivated areas. As a leading cereal crop, it is cultivated widely under varied agro-ecological regions and cropping systems throughout the world. It is one of the first plants domesticated and cultivated by humans, which played a critical role in the transition from hunter–gatherer groups to stabilized societies with an agrarian foundation.

Seed

• In broad sense, seed is a material which is used for planting or regeneration purpose. However, scientifically, seed is a fertilized matured ovule together covered with seed coat is called seed or it is a propagating material i.e., part of agriculture, sericulture, silviculture and horticultural plants used for sowing or planting purpose.
• Seed is a mature integumented megasporangium or mature ovule consisting of embryonic plants together with store food material covered by a protective coat.
• Seeds are fertilised, mature ovules, the result of sexual reproduction in plants. Not all plants produce seed (some produce spores or reproduce vegetatively) but most of the higher plants produce seed.
• It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant.
• The formation of the seed completes the process of reproduction in plants (started with the development of flowers and pollination), with the embryo developed from the zygote and the seed coat from the integuments of the ovule.

History and development of seed Industry in India can be discussed under two heads

1. Pre-independence development.
2. Post-independence development.

Generation system of seed multiplication is nothing but the production of a particular class of seed from specific class of seed up to certified seed stage. The choice of a proper seed multiplication model is the key to further success of a seed programme. This basically depends upon,

• The rate of genetic deterioration
• Seed multiplication ratio
• Total seed demand (Seed replacement rate)

Variety is a group of plants having clear distinguished characters which when reproduced either sexually or asexually retains their characters. The genetic purity of a variety or trueness to its type deteriorates due to several factors during the production cycles. The factors that are responsible for loss of genetic purity during seed production are :

• Developmental Variation
• Mechanical Mixtures
• Mutations
• Natural Crossing
• Genetic drift
• Minor Genetic Variation
• Selective influence of Diseases
• Techniques of the Breeder
• Breakdown of male sterility
• Improper/defective seed certification System

Seed Production

Systemized crop production is known as seed production. In seed production adequate care is given from the purchase of seeds upto harvest adopting proper seed and crop management techniques. The benefits of seed production are

• Higher income
• Higher quality seed for next sowing

The important events involved in seed development and maturation include

• Pollination
• Fertilization
• Development of the fertilized ovule by cell division
• Accumulation of reserve food material
• Loss of moisture content

• The seed production of varieties and hybrids should be carried out carefully by following various techniques in the region where they are well adopted.
• The various factors affecting quality seed production includes,
  1. Agro climatic factors / Ecological factors - edaphic and climatic factors
  2. Production factors
  3. Post harvesting handling of seed
  4. Seed quality control factors

Harvesting is one of the agronomic management practices that require technical knowledge on maturation of the crops. This knowledge is much important in seed production than in commercial production.

Physiological maturation

• It is the stage of accumulation of maximum dry matter within the seeds. The moisture content of the seed at this stage will be in decreasing order (25-30%) and is expressed with maximum dry weigh of seed, germination and vigour potential. The physiological maturation is represented for individual seed and this maturation will not be the same for the population, due to differential flowering habit.
• The attainment of physiological maturation is represented by sigmoid curve of growth pattern. The physiological maturation can be represented both as duration and visible symptoms.

Removal of seeds from dry fruits is known as threshing while that of wet fruits is known as extraction. Threshing involves beating or rubbing the plant material to detach the seed from its pod or fruit. The detached seed is then winnowed to remove chaff, straw and other light material from the seed.

Threshing / extraction methods

1. Mechanical threshing

• Various types of threshing machines with adjustable cylinder speeds are available for extraction of vegetable seeds.
• Care must be taken to avoid damage to the seed during mechanical threshing, by properly adjusting the speed of the beaters, the width of the gap between the beaters and the concave, the airflow and the sieve sizes.