ABSTRACT
Papaya is a fast growing tropical and subtropical fruit crop with both nutritional and health benefits. Production of this crop is threatened by a myriad of challenges arising from global warming and climate change. These challenges include periodic droughts and flooding, high temperatures as well as increased incidences of pest and disease infestation. Various management strategies including efficient irrigation, use of higher yielding, drought and disease tolerance varieties, integrated pest management, conservation agriculture, greenhouse production, carbon dioxide enrichment, inoculation with arbuscularmycorrhiza fungi among others will go a long way in ensuring continued survival and productivity of papaya. In this chapter climatic requirements, impact of global warming and climate change, crop management under changed climate conditions as well as strategies for minimizing this impact on papaya production are discussed. Geographic Information System (GIS), remote sensing (RS) and satellite imaging technologies are proposed for improving the efficiency of site-specific crop management. This will generate data for specific crop requirements thus improving timeliness and efficiency on the requisite response. Genetic engineering is mentioned as a tool for speeding up breeding for resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses.
