eBook Chapters

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).

Summary

Biodiversity (the variety of living things) is fundamental to ecosystem structures and functions, and provide the broad spectrum of goods and services that humans derive from natural systems such as food (e.g. fish), protection from disasters such as cyclones, storms, floods (e.g. mangroves) or maintenance of water quality. Species (biodiversity) respond to climate change either staying or moving out or dying out. For example, the rise of temperature as a consequence of climate change may cause some species to (a) stay in the same environment since they can tolerate to adapt to changes; or (b) may cause some species to move out in a suitable environment (e.g. some species to move pole ward, some up in elevation) or (c) some species (fish) to go deep to increased depths in the oceans to escape heat or warming or (d) may cause some species to die out or get extinct (species with restricted distribution, longer generation time will not be able to migrate or adapt to climate change). A pattern of range shifts such as pole wards and upwards has been documented in hundreds of species of plants and animals and is one of the strongest signals of biotic changes from global warming. These shifts result from two processes: cold-edge expansion and warm-edge contraction. There is now abundant evidence for local extinctions from contractions at the warm edges of species’ ranges or warm edge contraction because the species may have already reached the limits of their climatic tolerance. Investigations conducted reveals that many terrestrial and aquatic species are shifting their geographic ranges in response to rapid changes in temperature and precipitation regimes. For example, many terrestrial organisms are currently shifting in latitude or elevation in response to changing climate. It has been estimated that plants and animals have recently shifted to higher elevations at a median rate of 11.0 m per decade, and to higher latitudes at a median rate of 16.9 km per decade.

Summary

Climate change (floods, droughts, rise of temperature and sea level) can directly impact the incidence of water related diseases through effects on water temperature and precipitation frequency and intensity. This chapter focuses on some common water quality related diseases that may enhance due to climate change such as arsenicosis, cholera, cyanobacterial toxins, dengue, diarrhoea and malaria. Arsenicosis is the disease caused by arsenic (As) contamination. As poisoning via groundwater has become a worldwide problem with 21 countries experiencing As groundwater contamination including Bangladesh, India, and China. In Bangladesh, out of 64 districts, As levels in 60 districts have exceeded WHO recommended guidelines of 10 µg/L and in 51 districts it exceeded Bangladesh recommended guidelines of above 50 µg/L. Chronic exposure to As has been linked to carcinogenic effects in both humans and animals. These include cancer of the various skins and internal organs (lung, bladder, liver and kidney) and reproductive and developmental effects; cardiovascular disease; reduced intellectual function in children and mortality. Alternate floods and droughts (due to climate change) have been found associated with the release of As and contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh, therefore may increase the risks of the disease due to rise of extreme events such as floods and droughts. Cholera is a diarrhoeal disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. In 2012, WHO reported 245, 3931 cases of cholera in 48 countries, with more than 3,034 deaths with a case-fatality rate (CFR) of 1.2%. The highest cases were from Africa, followed by Latin America and Asia. The epidemic of cholera is reported to be linked strongly with climate change. Changes in temperature, salinity, rainfall and abundance of phytoplankton have been shown to cause an impact on distribution and survival of V. cholerae. In Bangladesh, cholera (cholera-toxin producing strain of V. cholerae) outbreaks are related to plankton blooms and rise of sea temperature.

Summary

Climate change can affect the quantitative and qualitative status of water resources by altering hydrological cycles, systems and through changes of water quality via chemical and biological contamination. Changes in these variables lead to impacts on all the socio-economic and environmental goods and services that depend on these variables directly or indirectly including water supply, damage to ecosystems, water dependent food production. The most dominant climate drivers for water quantity or water availability are precipitation, run-off and river flows, floods, droughts, snows, glaciers, sea level rise etc. The observed climate change related impacts on world’s water resources/water quantity include increased precipitation at high latitudes and temperate areas and decreasing trends at low latitudes. The annual run-off in some regions may experience increased run-off, such as in high latitudes and large parts of the USA, whereas there has been a decrease in run-off such as parts of West Africa, southern Europe and southernmost of South America. Floods have been the most reported natural disaster events in Africa, Asia and Europe than all other natural disasters and in case of Bangladesh, six extreme floods have occurred in the last two decades. More intense droughts have been reported from Australia, semi-arid and semi-humid regions, western USA and southern Canada, the Sahel. Precipitation is projected to increase at mid- and high latitudes, in the tropics, whereas precipitation is projected to decrease over many sub-tropical areas (North Africa, northern Sahara), tropical Central American (Caribbean) and the Mediterranean. In areas where evaporation rates are expected to increase it would lead to reduced river and stream run-off. In contrast, areas receiving higher precipitation would likely have higher lake and river levels and may experience floods. The annual stream flow in the Murray-Darling basin (Australia) is projected to fall by 10-25% by 2050 and 16-48% by 2100 which would have severe consequences on irrigated agriculture in the region. Rivers depending on the Himalayan glaciers such as the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Syr Darya and Amu Darya could face water shortages or river run-off due to retreat of glaciers, and this would cause dramatic impact on drinking water supplies, biodiversity, hydropower, industry, agriculture and ecosystems on which about 2.4 billion people in Asia depends. Globally, ground water is the source of one third of all freshwater withdrawals, supplying an estimated 36%, 42% and 27% of the water used for domestic, agricultural and industrial purposes, respectively. The demand for groundwater is likely to increase due to global increase of water use for irrigation and a decline in surface water quality and reduced summer flows in snow-dominated basins. It is projected that climate change (drought, floods) will affect groundwater recharge rates (e.g. floods would increase recharge, drought would decrease recharge).

India is the seventh largest country in the world with 17 per cent of the world’s population and with a total geographical area of 329 Mha, extending from 8°4’ to 37°6’ in the North and 68°7’ to 97°25’ in the East. It is bounded by the World’s highest mountains- the Himalayas in the North and surrounded by the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal in the South. The Indian Coastline along the southern part of the Country is over 7500 km long. The Country includes vast plains like the Indo-Gangetic Plains, and the Central Deccan Plateau, bordered by the Western Ghats on either side in the West and the South. The biodiversity in the terrain leads to a wide variety of climatic conditions, ranging from tropical to temperate climates across the Western Ghats. These range from permanent snowfields to tropical coastlands; areas of virtual desert in the northwest to fertile intensively cultivated rice fields in the northeast. A large proportion of India’s population continues to live in rural areas and depends heavily on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, animal agriculture and forestry for its livelihood. Agriculture is the mainstay of Indian economy. The Indian climate is dominated by the great wind system called the Monsoons, on which the Indian agriculture is dependant. The southwest monsoon is critical to the kharif crop (first crop), which accounts for more than 50% of the foodgrains production and 65% of the oilseeds production in the Country. The inter-annual monsoon rainfall variability in India leads to large-scale droughts and floods, resulting in a major effect on Indian foodgrain production (Parthasarathy and Pant, 1985; Parthasarathy et al., 1992; Selvaraju, 2003; Kumar et al., 2004) and on the economy of the Country (Gadgil et al., 1999a; Kumar and Parikh, 2001). Climatic variability and occurrence of extreme events are major concerns for the Indian subcontinent as they are inbuilt features under the projected climate change scenario. All the projections on climate change are based up on the General Circulation Models (GCMs). All the models project increase in temperature over the Country under different GHG emission scenarios. Rainfall variability is felt in different sub-meteorological divisions across the Country. Though the GCMs have been successful in depicting the gross features of the observed large scale climatological features, there is large uncertainty associated with these projections on regional scale, since the GCMs are yet to realistically reproduce the observed features at regional scale, particularly over the monsoon region (Kumar, et al., 2002). Several downscaling approaches are being used to derive the regional features from large scale model simulations. Under the projected climate change scenario, India will be one of the Countries facing the adverse impacts of climate change as agriculture is the mainstay of people of India. Hence, understanding of rainfall and temperature variability across the Country deserves attention in the projected climate change scenario.

11.1 Introduction

Agriculture sector contributes 19% to the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emission in India. Combined with land use change and forestry (LUCF), it is the second largest source of GHG emission in India. Initial efforts at dealing with the problem of global warming concentrated on mitigation, with the aim of reducing and possibly stabilizing the GHG concentrations in the atmosphere (UNFCCC, 1992). Even if this stabilization was achieved, sea level rise and global warming would continue to increase over centuries because of the inertia of the earth systems. Mitigation activities are traditionally employed as natural resources conservation measures, but they generally serve the dual purposes of reducing the emission of GHG from anthropogen sources, and enhancing carbon ‘‘sink’’. Forestry sector holds the key to the success of mitigation efforts, and has great potential to sequester carbon through reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), afforestation and reforestation, and forest management. India’s vast area of croplands, through cropland management, could be an important area for sequestering carbon in soils. India being the largest producer of rice and livestock in the world, appropriate management can contribute to a reduction of methane emission from rice production and enteric fermentation.

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.

Kerala, popularly known as the God’s own country, is situated at the southern tip of India between latitude range 8°15‘ N to 12°50’ N and 74°50’ E to 77°30’ E longitude. The State is graced with 44 rivers and numbers of streams and has rich biodiversity and tropical rain forests spread in 13 agro-ecological zones under humid tropics. Kerala is the Gateway of monsoon in India. Though Kerala is identified as Plantation State, the major staple food is rice. The annual rainfall in Kerala is about 2.7 times the national average. More or less assured amount of rainfall is being received in almost every year over the State, though inter-annual variability is felt more in recent decades. Uncertainties in rainfall are also felt much in the recent decades. Droughts during summer and floods during rainy season are frequent. Natural disasters like landslides/mud slips during rainy season are common across the mid and high lands of Kerala as the intensity of rainfall is high. Atmospheric temperature across the State is increasing. 1983 was a disastrous drought year in Kerala. The severe summer affected the State’s plantation crops economy to a considerable extent. Insignificant rainfall led to the severe summer drought during 1982–83.

Climate Change: Understanding our Earth and Atmosphere

Our Mother Earth is the fifth largest planet in the solar system and the third from the sun. It is also the sole planet whose name comes from old English language only, and not from names of any other celestial bodies, whose names originated mostly from Greek/Roman mythology. Earth has a diameter of 6378 km, of which the earth crust (uppermost skin) is only 24 km. Earth is the only planet where water exists as liquid and 71% of its surface is covered by water. The earth’s atmosphere is made up mostly of nitrogen (77%) and oxygen (21%) gases. CO₂ consists of a very small (trace) fraction (0.03%) of atmosphere, but is most vital for the life cycle. When earth was created, it has got much higher CO₂ than today, and all of them have been sequestered in rocks as carbonates and dissolved in oceans and a negligible amount is distributed in plant communities. This extremely small quantity of CO₂ is keeping life on earth, by maintaining earth’s temperature at a comfortable 14°C (without CO₂, earth’s temperature would have been -21°C). This effect is called the ‘greenhouse effect’, revolving which all issues of climate change exist. It is also to be noted that water vapour is also an important greenhouse gas (GHG). It is to also to be noted that in spite of substantial increase in solar constant, earth’s average temperature has remained stable for billions of years. It is understood that this was possible through variation in CO₂, and it is the biological processes (Earth biosphere) that controlled the environment over years (Gaia hypothesis).

Abstract

Climate is changing naturally at its own pace, since the beginning of evolution of earth, 4–5 billion years ago, but presently it has gained momentum due to inadvertent anthropogenic disturbances. Global climate is changing and it can have serious implications for our food security through its direct and indirect effects on crops, soils, live stocks, fisheries and pests. In the developing countries including India there has been relatively less attention paid to this topic in an integrated manner. Agriculture is the largest human activity in the world which depends on climatic parameters. We can manipulate soil, water and nutrient management practices but manipulation of climate is beyond our control. It influences crop-pest equilibrium. More than 50% differences in yield are due to climatic variation. Different causes of climate change are: A) Natural cause: Earth orbit, Global warming, Mountains, Sun, and Volcano. B) Anthropogenic cause: Global warming, Deforestation, Change in land use pattern. Climate change is a present reality and a major risk for future generations. Implementing energy conservation methods and utilizing renewable resource such as green power (power from moon, hydrogen fuel, nuclear power, sewage power, geothermal power and power of the mighty sun). Government should also encourage the use of mass transit; provide tax rebates for people who buy low and no pollution vehicles and subsidies to fossil fuels and the nuclear industries.

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).

Introduction

The intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) which takes account of on historical, psychological, social , physical and economic and political perspectives of climate change in its report, released in November 2014 said that the Working Group I contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) considers new evidence of climate change based on many independent scientific analyses from observations of the climate system, paleoclimate archives, theoretical studies of climate processes and simulations using climate models. Climate change is not controversial as naysayers and some media would convey. After decades of careful observation, collection of data, and tracking of changes in the climate system, there exists a solid, scientific consensus that human-caused climate change is a reality (Michael, 2012). In their report, the NCSE 2015 says that there is substantial scientific agreement about the occurrence, causes, and consequences of climate change. Yet due to the inherent complexity of the topic and the social controversies surrounding it, confusion and doubt often persist. Here, we need to develop the workforce, education, and training for climate-smart Agriculture. The following are some interventions.

The effects of global warming and/or climate change are of concern both for the environment and human life. Evidence of observed climate change includes the instrumental temperature record, rising sea levels, and decreased snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere. According to the IntergovernmentalPanel for Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report, “most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in [human greenhousegas] concentrations. It is predicted that futureclimate changes will include further globalwarming (i.e., an upward trendin global mean temperature), sea level rise, and a probable increase in the frequency of some extreme weather events. Ecosystems are seen as being particularly vulnerable to climate change. Human systems are seen as being variable in their capacity toadapt to future climate change. To reduce the risk of large changes in future climate, many countries have implemented policies designed to reducetheir emissions of greenhouse gas.

Introduction

Climate change, a global phenomenon of present time, has emerged as the greatest challenge of the world in the twenty-first century. Rising earth’s surface temperature is one of the most threatening factors coming into view. The substantial changes in the earth’s climate have an impact on ecosystems, economics and societies in a variety of ways (Sharma et al., 2024). It is one of the important environmental, agricultural, human and animal health issue. Climate change is an association of multidimensional effects involving physical characteristics, causes and consequences (Visschers, 2018). The climate change has resulted in to increasing global average temperature of air and ocean, melting of snow, rising of ocean level, change in the rainfall pattern and extreme whether events such as drought, flood, heat waves, storms etc.

Introduction

Climate change is one of the important areas of concern for world to ensure food and nutrition security to the growing population. The impacts of climate change are global but development countries like India are highly vulnerable as large population depends upon agriculture and allied service. As per the latest report, the global average temperature rises is 0.99⁰C (NASA, 2016) since pre-industrial time (1850). The year 2016 ranks as the warmest year, 16 of the 17 warmest years in the 136 years record all have occurred since 2001. The predicted temperature rise for India is in the range 0.5-1.2⁰C by 2020, 0.88-3.16⁰C by 2050 and 1.56-5.44⁰C by the year 2080. Studies in India showed significant negative impacts of climate change, predicted to reduce yields by 4.5 to 9.0%, depending on the magnitude and distribution of warming. Agriculture sector is contributing about 17.4% of India’s GDP, a 4.5-9.0% negative impact on production implies a cost of climate change to be roughly up to 1.5% GDP per year. Therefore, Govt. of India has accorded high priority on research and development to cope with the climate change in general and agriculture and allied sector. The Prime Ministers National Action Plan on Climate Change has Identified Agriculture and allied sector as one of the 8 national Missions. Agriculture and the future of global food security figure very importantly in climate change negotiations. As stated in Article II of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the goal is to ensure stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”. With this background to meet the challenges of sustaining domestic food production in the face of changing climate and to generate information on adaptation and mitigation in agriculture to contribute to global for a like UNFCCC, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) launched a flagship network project National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) during XI plan in February 2011, and during XII Plan it is referred as National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA).

12.1 What is Climate Change?
 
The earth receives short-wave radiation from the sun, one-third of which is absorbed by the atmosphere, ocean, ice-land and living organisms. The energy absorbed from solar radiation is balanced, in the long-term, by the outgoing radiation from the earth and atmosphere. While short-wave radiation from the sun can easily pass through the atmosphere, the long-wave radiation emitted by the warm surface of the earth is partially absorbed by trace gases in the atmosphere called greenhouse gases’ (GHGs).

14.1. INTRODUCTION

The climate of a place is the average weather that is experiences over a period of time. It is the natural phenomenon that has occurred throughout the history of the earth. Climate change is strongly associated with higher temperature, altered precipitation, and higher levels of atmospheric CO₂ and other greenhouse gases. It is a very slow process; it takes a long time to settle in. Climate change in IPCC (2007) usage refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activities. Over the last 150-200 years the changes to our climate are happening more quickly now than they have ever done before in the geological past. Human activities have altered natural climatic processes at a geographically rapid pace by booting atmospheric concentrations of several greenhouse gasses. Following are the changes taken place over years of industrial age (IPCC, 2007):

INTRODUCTION

The debate on climate change is going on. From the report of the Inter Governmental Panel on climate change (IPCC), a premier organization set up in 1998 by the World Meteorological Organisation and United Nations Environment Programme, it is known that the average surface temperature has increased over the 20th century by about 0. 6ºC. The number may seem insignificant but it is an unprecedented rise. In the past 150 years, the 11 hottest years were witnessed. It says that 1990s was the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year since 1861. Worse, the Artic is warming twice as rapidly as the rest of the world and there is a distinct possibility of the Greenland Ice Sheet collapsing altogether and pushing up sea levels by several metres. It is predicted that 2035 is the year when Himalayan glaciers may totally disappear causing catastrophic disruptions. Unfortunately, India is among the countries that will suffer the most serious consequences as a result of global warming. Following is the probable effect of global warming.

Many aspects of the global climate are changing rapidly. Evidence for changes in the climate system abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans. The climate system is the highly complex system consisting of five major components; the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the land surface and the biosphere, and the interactions among them. The climate system evolves in time under the influence of its own internal dynamics and because of external forcings such as volcanic eruptions, solar variations and human-induced forcings such as the changing composition of the atmosphere and land-use.

The term ‘climate variability’ is often used to denote deviations of climatic statistics over a given period of time (e.g., a month, season or year) from the long-term statistics relating to the corresponding calendar period. In this sense, climate variability is measured by those deviations, which are usually termed anomalies.

‘Climate change’ refers to a statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended period (typically decades or longer). Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings, or due to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. The United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines ‘climate change’ as ‘a change of climate behaviour which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods’. The UNFCCC thus makes a distinction between ‘climate change’ attributable to human activities altering the atmospheric composition, and ‘climate variability’ attributable to natural causes. Climate change is a long-term shift in weather conditions measured by changes in temperature, precipitation, wind, snow cover, and other indicators. It can involve both changes in average conditions and changes in variability, including, for example, changes in extreme conditions.

A key difference between climate variability and change is in persistence of ‘anomalous’ conditions. In other words, events that are used to be rare occur more frequently, or vice versa. Occasionally, an event or sequence of events occurs that has never been recorded before, such as the exceptional tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 or hurricane season in the Atlantic in 2005. Yet even that could be a part of natural climate variability. If such a season does not recur within the next 30 years, by looking back it could be called as an exceptional year, but not a ‘climate change’. Only a persistent series of unusual events taken in the context of regional climate parameters can suggest that a potential change in climate has occurred.

8.1 Climate Change

Climate change is a broad term of global negative phenomena as created predominantly by burning of fossil fuels, which add heat-trapping gases to earth’s atmosphere. The over accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere lead to increased temperature and this is called as global warming. As a result, sea-level rise; ice mass loss in Greenland, Antarctica, Arctic and mountain glaciers worldwide; shifts in flowering/ plant blooming; and extreme weather events occur.

From the beginning of 18th century, the human activities started increasing gradually. Industrialization, increased use of petroleum products, deforestation, mining and increased use of chemicals have contributed to the pollution of natural resource base. The proportion of gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane etc started increasing in the atmosphere and more heat is getting trapped in the atmosphere leading to rise in atmospheric temperatures (Fig. 15.1).

The changes in atmosphere temperatures have led to changes in weather patterns. This changes in weather pattern triggered extreme situations like heat wave, cold wave, severe cyclonic activity, strong winds and hail storms, f loods and droughts of greater intensity creating new records.

The greenhouse technology is all about the controlling of ambient climatic factors to create a favourable ‘micro-climate’ for the crop growth. The magnitude of such control may differ from minimal to maximum. It may control single (like rain) to multiple aspects (like rain, temperature, humidity, sun-light, wind, carbon-di-oxide, etc in combination). It can simply be done by manipulating natural factors using the suitable/appropriate design of the greenhouse or can be done in complex form by using/installing different devices and packages (may be software) with necessary automation in a specifically designed greenhouse.

It is a vast subject and very difficult to have a thumb-rule for such climate control mechanism due to seasonal climatic variations and most importantly due to the inter-relation effect between each and every climatic factors. Thus, it should be given sufficient space to maneuver the mechanism designed for a specific greenhouse targeting a specific crop.

Ways to control these climatic factors in a greenhouse

There are two basic ways to control the climate inside greenhouse.

Primarily, through a suitable design of the greenhouse itself, the inside microclimate can be controlled, obviously up to a certain level. Through manipulation of the design, particularly the naturally ventilated system, the rain water, temperature, humidity, CO_2, wind, etc can be controlled up to a certain level in favour of the crop.

Secondarily, by introducing equipments, tools, devices, etc we can control the micro-climate of a greenhouse. In most cases, it can take care of a number of climatic factors, like temperature and humidity, sun-light and temperature, etc simultaneously to provide a crop-wise micro-climate inside.

Frequently we use both the basic controlling methods, in combination, to achieve the required climate control system in a particular greenhouse.

We have already discussed about the different climatic factors that affect the crop micro-climate. Now we will discuss the basic control mechanism of each and every climatic factors and the related technology that can be utilized for greenhouse.

Introduction

The animal husbandry and agriculture are the major resource of income for the farmers and directly affects the economic conditions of farmers. Livestock sector plays a vital role for livelihood food security in India. Buffalo plays an important role in dairy industry and contribute 49 per cent of total milk production in India (BAHS, 2017). Murrah is one of the best buffalo breeds in the world and also widely used for up-gradation of non-descript buffaloes in India. Murrah buffalo have poor thermoregulation mechanism compared to other domestic ruminants in tropical countries and are more prone to heat stress due to very less sweat glands, jet black colour and thin hairs on body surface (Das et al., 1999; Khongdee et al., 2013) which reduce the ability of cutaneous evaporation and largely responsible for its low productivity and consequently reducing the reproductive efficiency (Gudev et al., 2007). India continues to be the largest milk producer in the world since 1997. Milk production has increased from 165.4 million tonnes (2016-17) to 176.4 million tonnes (2017-18) (DAHD, GOI). The demand for milk is increasing at a very fast pace due to exponential population growth and the gap in the production and supply is increasing. Out of 300 million bovines, only 88 million are in milk leaving large unproductive animals including 84 million males (19th Livestock census, 2012). If the gap of production and supply is to be bridged, the large number of constraints that affect reproductive efficiency and productivity of dairy animals must be addressed effectively. One important factor that can contribute to the productivity of animals is qualitative production and quantitative adequacy of semen doses for A.I.

Abstract

Global warming is predicted to have significant effects in global potato production. Like many crops, potaoes are likely to be affected by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, temperature and precipitatiom, as well as interations between these factors. As well as affecting potatoes directly, climate change will also affect the distributions and populations of many potato diseases and pests. Potato is one of the world’s most important food crops. Potato prodcution must be adapted to climate change to aviod reductions in crop yields. Potato plants and potato crop are predicted to benefit from increased carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. The major benefit of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide for potatoes (and other plants) is an increase in thier photosynthetic rates which can increase their growth rates. Potato crop yields are also predicted to benefit because potates partition more starch to the ediable tubers under elevated carbon dioxides levels. Higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide also results in potatoes having to open thier stomata less to take up equal amount of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, which means loss through transpiration from stomata. As a result the water use efficiency (the amount of carbon assimilated per unit water lost) of potato plants is predicted to increase.

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.

Climate change is a long-lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather pattern triggered by greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. It is caused by natural factors like continental drift, volcanoes, earth’s tilt, and ocean current or manmade factors like urbanization, industrialization, burning of fossil fuel, deforestation and faulty agricultural practices.

Climate change refers to a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods (FCCC).

Overall, climate change could result in a variety of impacts on agriculture. Some of these effects are biophysical, some are ecological, and some are economic, including:

• A shift in climate and agricultural zones towards the poles
• Changes in production patterns due to higher temperatures
• A boost in agricultural productivity due to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
• Changing precipitation patterns
• Increased vulnerability of the landless and the poor

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 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.

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 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.

Climate change impacts on agriculture are being witnessed all over the world, but countries like India are more vulnerable in view of the high population that depends on agriculture and excessive pressure on natural resources. The warming trend in India over the past 100 years (1901 to 2007) was observed to be 0.51°C with accelerated warming of 0.21oC per every 10 years since 1970 (Kumar, 2009). The projected impacts are likely to further aggravate the yield fluctuations of many crops with impact on food security and prices. Climate change impacts are likely to vary in different parts of the country. Parts of western Rajasthan, Southern Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Northern Karnataka, Northern Andhra Pradesh and Southern Bihar are likely to be more vulnerable in terms of extreme events (Mall et al., 2006).

Milk, meat, eggs and their products have been the important part of the human diet in almost all countries of the world. These are highly nutritious and provide vital nutrients absent in typical starchy staples which dominate poor people’s diets. On global scale, animal meat, egg and milk provide 80% of animal protein intake.

The livestock sector requires a significant amount of natural resources and is responsible for about 14.5% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (7.1 Gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents for the year 2005). Methane, mainly produced by enteric fermentation and manure storage, is a gas which has an effect on global warming 28 times higher than carbon dioxide. Nitrous oxide, arising from manure storage and the use of organic/inorganic fertilizers, is a molecule with a global warming potential 265 times higher than carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide equivalent is a standard unit used to account for the global warming potential. Mitigation strategies aimed at reducing emissions of this sector are needed to limit the environmental burden from food production while ensuring a sufficient supply of food for a growing world population.

Dryland agriculture is a more vulnerable system in view of its high dependency on monsoon rains which are of aberrant nature. The risk of crop failure and poor yields always restrain farmers from investing on new technologies and input use.

Concept of resilience

Resilience is used to describe the magnitude of a disturbance that a system can withstand without crossing threshold into a new structure or dynamic. Resilience is defined as “the ability of a system and its component parts to anticipate, absorb, accommodate, or escape from unacceptable standards of living due to the effects of a hazardous event, in a timely and efficient manner”. In other words, resilience describes the capacity of communities in a given context or landscape to maintain and improve their livelihoods—despite stresses and shocks—through the sustainable management of natural resources while maintaining key ecological functions

7.1 Introduction

Water is one of the most essential natural resources of the planet. Water is also the most critical resource for sustainable development in most of the developing countries. The quantities that are needed for drinking and sanitation purpose of humans are relatively small, and much larger quantities of water are required for many other purposes. It is essential not only for agriculture, industry and economic growth of a country, but also it is the most important component of the environment and ecosystem, with significant impact on overall wealth and nature conservation. Agricultural and industrial activities critically depend on a sufficient amount of fresh water that is withdrawn from rivers, lakes and groundwater aquifers. Currently, the rapid growth of world population along with the extension of irrigation dependent agriculture, development of industrial sector and climate change are stressing the quantity and quality of the natural water systems. Due to the increasing problems, human have begun to realize that they can no longer follow “use and discard” methodology either with water resources or any other natural resources. As a result, the need for water management has become evident. Climate change has already started to affect the hydrological cycle and the availability of freshwater for agriculture. So, proper water management practices play crucial roles in the food production and the management of ecosystems. Over the last century global irrigated area has increased more than sixfold from approximately 40 million hectares in 1900 to more than 260 million hectares in 2000. Today more than 40% of the world’s food comes from the irrigated cropland which is 18% of the total cultivated crop land. Irrigated area is increased by almost 1% every year and the demand for irrigation water will increase by 13.6% by 2025 (Jensen, 1993). On the other hand about 8-15% of fresh water supply will be diverted from agricultural sector to meet the increased demand of domestic and industrial use. On the other hand the efficiency of irrigation is very low, only 65% of the applied water is used by the crop (Fig. 1). So, to overcome shortage of irrigation water for agriculture, it is essential to increase the water use efficiency in the crop field and to use marginal water for irrigation.

The global economy has adversely been affected to a considerable extent due to weather related disasters which are not uncommon in the recent past due to global warming and climate change. It is true in the case of the Indian economy too. The year 2010 was the warmest year ever recorded, followed by 2009 in India. The year 2015 was the warmest year globally. Model simulations indicate that a marked increase in rainfall and temperature over India would be seen during the current century. The maximum expected increase in rainfall is likely to be 10–30% over the Central India. Temperatures are likely to increase between 2 and 3^oC by the end of 2100 A.D. Greater number of high surges and increased occurrence of cyclones in post monsoon period along with increased maximum wind speed are also expected along the East Coast of the Country. As a result, the occurrence of floods and droughts, cold and heat waves adversely affected the foodgrains production to a large extent across the Country in one or other region as seen in 2014, 2012, 2009, 2004, 2002 and 1987. It is true in the case of plantation crops also, which are predominantly grown in the Humid Tropics like Kerala (8°15` N and 12°50`N latitudes and between 74°50`E and 77°30`E longitudes). As seen in previous chapters, summer drought and heavy rains including waterlogging during monsoon period is a threat to plantation crops production in the Humid Tropics to a considerable extent. Waterlogging and floods due to excess rains could be minimised by providing surface and subsurface drainage facilities in plantation gardens which will improve the soil health and nutritional status, in turn yields can be increased in plantation crops.

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.

Introduction

Natural resources support livelihood of a large section of India’s population, despite its steady declining share in the Gross Domestic Production (GDP) and, in all probability these will continue to play the dominant role even in future. Interaction of several factors in the global climate change scenario has markedly limited the capability of natural resources and thereby threatened livelihood of small holders throughout the world. Factors like agriculture production crisis, fresh water unavailability, energy crisis, deforestation; degradation, wide pandemic, active climate change effects and continuous rise of input cost of farming create threats to the livelihood of millions and it has become imperative to collectively understand the complexities and challenges in natural resource conservation and management.

Abstract

Climate change is well acknowledged fact globally and in India has been witnessed with more frequent cloud bursts, highly variable frequency and distribution of rainfall, high seasonal thermal variations, receding glaciers and unstable agricultural production. Likely impact of climate change is expected to reduce agricultural productivity, production stability and incomes in some areas that already have high levels of food insecurity. However, Agriculture has the potential to retard the pace of climate change by capturing a significant part of the excess atmospheric carbon in the soil and plants in the form of organic matter and also competent to reduce emissions of nitrous oxide and methane if practiced in smart ways so developing climate-smart agriculture is thus crucial in achieving future food security and climate change goals. Transformations are needed in both commercial and subsistence agricultural systems, but with significant differences in priorities and capacity. Several climate smart agriculture practices such as cropping system improvement (e. g. crop rotation, diversification, improved varieties and integration of legumes), integrated nutrient management (e.g. green manure, compost and site specific nutrient management), resource conservation (e.g. minimum/zero tillage, keeping the land consistently covered with crop residues), precision water management (e.g. planting crops in bed, laser land leveling, mulching with crop residues) and agro-forestry have been proposed for adaptation to climate change and variability. However, their adoption decisions by the farmers are largely dependent on economic benefits associated with the interventions. It should be clearly understood that climate smart agriculture does not make use of different practices but certainly it uses them differently.

Introduction

Climate smart agriculture (CSA) refers to the incorporation of adaptation and mitigation practices in agriculture that enhances the system-resistance and recovery-mechanism against climatic hazards. Climatic hazards / disturbances include drought, flood, heat / cold wave, erratic precipitation, sudden dry spell etc. In nutshell, CSA is the ability of the system to bounce back. It can also be explained as an approach to build-up resilience of agricultural systems, to increase adaptive capacities of farming communities to climate change and variability, and to ensure food security (Prasad et al., 2015).

Climate change can be defined as a statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting of an extended period, typically three decades or longer (Pathak et al., 2014; NAAS, 2013, Bhattacharyya et al., 2016). The surface air temperature, sea level rise, occurrence of extreme events (heat wave, cyclone, flash flood) is the direct evidences of climate change. The annual average surface temperature has increased by 0.87^°C in 100 years (IPCC, 2018). Recent report revealed that more than 90% of Northern Hemisphere land areas outside the tropics showed at least 1^°C above average, whereas temperatures were less extreme in Southern Hemisphere. Importantly, temperatures were above normal over most of the ocean areas. Global sea level rose to about 15 mm, in between November (2014) and February (2016), as a result of ElNino, which was well above the post-1993 trend of 3.0-3.5 mm year^-1. However, Indian summer monsoon rainfall since 1901 to 2012 showed no long-term trends, with some regional changes. Importantly, night temperatures have increased sharply during recent years, which couple with erratic precipitation could significantly affect agricultural production. The fifth IPCC (IPCC, 2014) reports clearly brought out global and regional impacts of climate change on Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU). South Asia has been characterized as one of the most vulnerable regions. Impacts of climate change witnessed all over the world; however, countries like India is more vulnerable because of its huge population primary dependent on agriculture for livelihood, predominance of small and marginal farmers, and fragmented land holding.

Climate change may manifest itself as rapid changes in climate in the short term or subtler changes over decades. Generally, climate change is associated with an increasing global temperature. Various climate model projections suggest that by the year 2100, mean global temperature may be 1.1–6.4 °C warmer than in 2010. The difficulty facing livestock is weather extremes, e.g. intense heat waves, ?oods and droughts. In addition to production losses, extreme events also result in livestock death (Gaughan and Cawsell-Smith, 2015). Animals can adapt to hot climates, however the response mechanisms that are helpful for survival may be detrimental to performance. In this article we make an attempt to project the adverse impact of climate change on livestock production. There is a two-way relationship between livestock production and environmental health.

Impact of climate change on livestocks

The potential impacts on livestock include changes in production and quality of feed crop and forage, water availability, animal growth and milk production, diseases, reproduction, and biodiversity. These impacts are primarily due to an increase in temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration, precipitation variation, and a combination of these factors. Temperature affects most of the critical factors for livestock production, such as water availability, animal production, reproduction and health. Forage quantity and quality are affected by a combination of increases in temperature, CO₂ and precipitation variation. Livestock diseases are mainly affected by an increase in temperature and precipitation variation.

Agriculture is the largest human activity in the world which depends on climatic parameters. Despite technological advances, such as improved crop varieties, genetically modified organisms, and irrigation systems, weather is still a key factor in agricultural productivity, as well as soil properties and natural communities.

Introduction

Despite recent significant increases in global food production Sustainable development goal- “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture” seems unachievable. Globally, 1 in 9 people are undernourished, the vast majority of whom live in developing countries. Under nutrition causes wasting or severe wasting of 52 million children worldwide. It contributes to nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million children per.Today, the majority of the world’s hungry people—nearly 870 million—live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Climate change impacts on food security and livelihoods are already alarming and affecting millions of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa (FAO, 2016).

In view of today’s 795 million hungry and the additional 2 billion people expected by 2050, there is an urgent need for a change of global food and agriculture systems in order to sustainably increase food production (UN, 2016). This will exert intense pressure on agro-ecosystems that are already overburdened, particularly in developing countries as most of those increases in production have to occur in this part of the world. The environmental impacts of satisfying this increased food demand will be further aggravated by climate change. With increased frequency and severity of droughts, extreme heat conditions and over dependence on rainfed agriculture, there is a growing agricultural productivity crisis, dwindling household food availability and the economic prosperity of countries whose national economies are dependent on agriculture. Considering that climate change impacts are felt differently within regions, context-specific adaptation measures are required to reduce risks and build adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers (Altieri, M.Aet al.2017).

Application of Climate-Smart Agriculture

Agricultural production systems are expected to change in response to climate change and ensure food security in different countries. Climate variability may further affect the agricultural production in future. To meet such challenges, there are many options to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on agricultural systems, make them resilient to climate change, and reduce emissions. Many technologies and practices can increase crop yields, farm income, and input-use efficiency, and may reduce GHG emissions (Khatri Chhetri et al. 2017). Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is suggested to address the adverse effects of climate change and ensure food security. It is intended to achieve the three objectives of ensuring productivity, adapting and building resilience and reducing emission of GHG.

Many aspects of the global climate are changing rapidly. Evidence for changes in the climate system abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans. The climate system is the highly complex system consisting of five major components; the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the land surface and the biosphere, and the interactions among them. The climate system evolves in time under the influence of its own internal dynamics and because of external forcings such as volcanic eruptions, solar variations and human-induced forcings such as the changing composition of the atmosphere and land-use.

The term ‘climate variability’ is often used to denote deviations of climatic statistics over a given period of time (e.g., a month, season or year) from the long-term statistics relating to the corresponding calendar period. In this sense, climate variability is measured by those deviations, which are usually termed anomalies.

‘Climate change’ refers to a statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended period (typically decades or longer). Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings, or due to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. The United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines ‘climate change’ as ‘a change of climate behaviour which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods’. The UNFCCC thus makes a distinction between ‘climate change’ attributable to human activities altering the atmospheric composition, and ‘climate variability’ attributable to natural causes. Climate change is a long-term shift in weather conditions measured by changes in temperature, precipitation, wind, snow cover, and other indicators. It can involve both changes in average conditions and changes in variability, including, for example, changes in extreme conditions.

A key difference between climate variability and change is in persistence of ‘anomalous’ conditions. In other words, events that are used to be rare occur more frequently, or vice versa. Occasionally, an event or sequence of events occurs that has never been recorded before, such as the exceptional tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 or hurricane season in the Atlantic in 2005. Yet even that could be a part of natural climate variability. If such a season does not recur within the next 30 years, by looking back it could be called as an exceptional year, but not a ‘climate change’. Only a persistent series of unusual events taken in the context of regional climate parameters can suggest that a potential change in climate has occurred.

The global production of cocoa is around 36.49 lakh tonnes against the demand of 37.37 lakh tonnes. Ivory Coast leads in cocoa production in the world with a contribution of 38 per cent, followed by Ghana and Indonesia. Unlike in other crops, it appears that the production and demand of cocoa at the global level match each other to a large extent. However, the recent trends in the world production of cocoa beans indicated that there was a drop of nine per cent in 2006–07, declining from 3.8 million tonnes in 2005–06 to 3.4 million tonnes in 2006–07 (Table 9.1). It was attributed to unfavourable conditions in many cocoa producing areas. West Africa, the main cocoa producing region, was hit by a severe harmattan (dusty dry wind from November to March) and its inherent dry weather, which lasted from the end of 2006 to February 2007, had a strong negative impact on global cocoa production. In Asia and South America, El Nino- related weather conditions developed in September 2006 and continued until the beginning of 2007. It led to relatively low cocoa production in 2007–07. However, it was rebounced in 2007– 08 to some extent though it was low (36.49 lakh tonnes) when compared to that of 2005–06. The favourable weather which prevailed over most of the cocoa growing regions during 2002–03 and 2003–04 helped to achieve better production during the above years while dip in the global production in 2006–07 due to unfavourable weather. It reveals that the weather abnormalities like floods, droughts, cold and heat waves across the cocoa growing regions of the world adversely affect the Coca production and the cocoa industry is likely to suffer.

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. One sixth of world’s population is under starvation. It is estimated that 300 million people in the world do not get food three times a day. About 18,000 children die every day due to malnutrition. Many Asian-African countries are under severe food crisis. It is also estimated that out of the World’s most hungry people, 29 per cent is in India. 47 per cent of children below three years of age are suffering from malnutrition problem. 75 per cent of world’s population is dependant 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 over India during 2009 resulted to poor foodgrains production including rice as the area under rice cultivation was less. There were also devastating floods in southern States of India viz., Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. 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 over the country 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.

The natural habitat of rubber (Heavea brasiliensis) is rain forests of the Amazon basin, situated within 5° North and South at altitudes below 200m. The climate of this region is equatorial monsoon type characterized by mean monthly temperature by 25 to 28°C, well distributed rainfall and no marked dry weather. Though it is originated in the Amazon basin, it is now predominantly grown in the tropics where an equatorial monsoon type climate prevails. Regions between 8°N and 10°S which includes Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, southern part of Sri Lanka and some other Islands, are better suited to rubber cultivation. The production of natural rubber in the country was 8.65 lakh MT in 2008–09, registering a 4.74 per cent growth compared to the previous year.

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is one of the most important beverage crops in the World and the second most commonly drank liquid on earth after water. It has numerous medicinal benefits mainly due to its antibacterial and antioxidant properties. The major tea growing regions of the world are South-East Asia (India and Sri Lanka), Eastern and South Africa consisting of Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique. All these countries are producers of black tea. China and Japan are the major producers of green tea.

Climate change is now a global phenomenon and its impact on livelihood health and wellbeing, and overall quality of life is not deniable. No country is free from the overall impacts of climate change, but poor people of developing countries have been disproportionately affected by the adverse effects. Vulnerability in the context of climate change is a function of sensitivity, exposure and adaptive capacities. Odisha is the 9^th largest state by area and the 11th largest state by population in India. The state has an area of 155,707 km², which is 4.87 per cent of the total area of India, and a coastline of 480 km. In the eastern part of the state lies the coastal plain. It extends from the Subarnarekha river in the north to the Rushikulya river in the south. The State is broadly divided into four geographical regions, i.e. Northern Plateau, Central River Basins, Eastern Hills and Coastal Plains. The climate of the state is characterized by hot summer and cold winter in the interior parts. The state has historically been highly prone to climate change and multiple hazards – mainly cyclones, droughts and ?oods. Natural disasters devastate millions of lives and livelihoods in Odisha each year. More children and women suffer from the effects of natural disasters and this is predicted to worsen as storms ?oods and droughts become more severe and frequent because of climate change.