ABSTRACT
During the past century, the average global temperature rose signicantly as a consequence of greenhouse effect. This occurs due to the rise in greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from burning fossil fuels or from deforestation, which traps heat that would otherwise escape from the Earth. The current scientic view is that most of the increase in global temperature is caused due to human activity. As a result, the concentration of greenhouse gasses increases in the atmosphere, which has led to an elevation in the Earth’s average surface temperature. Most scientists agree that the planet’s rise in temperature will continue at an increasing rate. Under these circumstances, crop productivity will be at stake. On the one hand, the increase in temperature leads to droughts, cracked elds and low rainfall, which adds to the intensity and frequency of dusty storms, ultimately depleting the quality of agricultural land and making it permanently unsuitable for cultivation. On the other, because of the higher temperatures, the seasons are becoming unstable. Consequently, the amount of rainfall will be severely affected and hence the crop productivity. Therefore, under such conditions, crops in many regions will be prone to environmental stresses. These changes not only affect plant growth and yield, but also have
an adverse effect on agricultural productivity. Furthermore, the impact of climate change also poses a serious threat to food security and needs to be much better understood. According to a study, wheat yields in recent years marginally decreased in India, France and China compared with what they probably would have been without rising temperatures. Researchers have also claimed that corn yields were off a few percentage points in some of the countries from what would have been expected normally. Most of the mechanisms and two-way interactions between agriculture and climate are known, even though they are not always well understood. It is evident that the relationship between climate change and agriculture is still very much a matter of conjecture with many uncertainties (Rosenzweig and Hillel, 1993).
