Impact of climate change on sorghum productivity in India and its adaptation strategies

Abstract

Future climate change projections for India indicate distinct rise in temperature and increased variability in rainfall. This study aims to assess the impact of climate change on sorghum productivity in India in future climatic periods (2025, 2050 and 2075) using DSSAT-sorghum and suggest adaptation strategies to negate the negative impact of climate change on sorghum productivity in the future climates. Three CMIP-5 climate models (GFDL-ESM2M, MIROC5 and NorESM1-M) generated weather data for three future periods were used at various locations for kharif (Akola, Dharwad, Surat and Udaipur) and rabi (Bijapur, Dharwad, Rahuri and Solapur) seasons to simulate sorghum yields. Projected changes in day-night temperatures and rainfall during kharif and rabi growing seasons at these locations are diverse both in direction and magnitude. Increasing trend in rainfall is observed during both crop seasons towards the end of 21st century. Sorghum crop is likely to experience warmer temperature in the second half of the century and rise in minimum temperature is more explicit than maximum temperature at all the locations. Location specific management options can be adopted to mitigate the negative impacts of the change in climate in future projected scenarios, as they are found beneficial.