Agriculture and climate change

Abstract

Climate change includes higher temperatures, changes in precipitation, and higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The Greenhouse effect may be important for agriculture in three different ways (1) by increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations which may effect directly on the growth rate of crop plants as well as weeds (2) CO2-induced changes of climate may alter levels of temperature, rainfall and sunshine which manipulates plant and animal productivity and (3) increases flood area by rises in sea level. Climate change is the most serious environmental threat that negatively affects the farm produce. In agriculture, Green House Gas (GHG) emission is much more because of large number of cattle and poor manure management, rude use of agro-chemicals and land mismanagement. Nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) are two of the main potent non-CO2 GHG, which contributes about half of the global emissions of the world. Emission of nitrous oxide (N2O) arises directly from nitrogen (N) applied to the soil or indirectly from nitrates, whether it may be in the form of fertilizer, manure, crop residues or nitrogen fixation. There are two processes, Nitrate leaching or ammonia volatilization which will be successful measures to reduce farming emissions. India has wide range of variations in climate, ranging from tropical to temperate and alpine in the Himalayan. As the temperature and resource availability varies between different countries it results in variation of agricultural contribution to climate change. In present paper we are concerned with the contribution of Agricultural Activities to Climate Change, its causes, impact as well as mitigation strategies. Therefore, contribution of agricultural activities to climate change, its causes, impact as well as mitigation strategies need to be addressed for sustaining agricultural productivity.