Crop Species Responses and Adaptation to Rise in Carbon Dioxide and Temperature

Agriculture is a vital sector in the economies of many countries. In providing food for the human population, feed for livestock, and raw material for agroprocessing, agriculture contributes substantially to the GDP worldwide. In less developed countries it occupies a proportionally higher role in national economies. However, agriculture is greatly dependent on prevailing climate conditions, especially the variability of weather, and it is therefore important to understand the impacts of any climate or weather change on crop growth and production (Antle and Capalbo 2010; Darnhofer 2014; Dwivedi et al. 2013; Porter and Semenov 2005). Both rise in average temperature and increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) over the past two decades are well documented (IPCC 2001). Many studies and reports have shown that increases in temperature and CO₂ could be beneficial for some crops, depending on other interacting climatic conditions. Thus it is crucial to understand how different crop species will respond to increasing CO₂ and global warming, and how crops in general will respond to changes in the future (CGCR 1999; Fuhrer 2003; Idso and Idso 1994; Nemecek et al. 2012; Singh-Chauhan et al. 2014).