An Empirical Evidence of Global Warming and its impact on India’s Agricultural Production

Abstract

India is a large country with all types of climates and different kinds of soil requiring different types of farming. Most of the agricultural land in India is dependent on rainfall for irrigation. India has about 15 Agro-climatic zones with different types of farming methods and crops. As most of the population is dependent on agriculture and two-third of the country depend on monsoon rains to aid in agriculture, any change in frequency of the rains will affect these areas critically. Assessment of the effects of global climate changes on agriculture might help to properly anticipate and adapt farming to maximize agricultural production. At the same time agriculture has been shown significant effects on climate change, primarily through the production and release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The impact of climate change on agriculture could result in problems like food security and may threaten the livelihood on which much of the population depends. Climate change can affect crop yields ( both positively and negatively), as well as the types of crop that can be grown in certain areas, by impacting agricultural inputs such as water for irrigation, amounts of solar radiation that affect plant growth, as well as prevalence of pests. The impact of climate change on wheat showed that its yield decreased due to the adverse effects of temperature during grain filling and maturity stages of the growth. The results of this study indicate that crop characteristics such as sensitivity of grain filling duration to temperature, play a major role in determining the effects of climate change on crop productivity. Several studies projected increase or decrease in yields of cereal crops, oilseed and pulses crops depending on interaction of temperature and CO2 changes in India. The present study has selected a thirteen years period from 2000 – 2012. .