Impacts of Climate Change and its Mitigation Strategies for Sustainable Agriculture

Climate change is considered one of the major environment problems in the 21st century and which has become an important scientific and political issue. Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change has shown that the earth temperature has increased by 0.74°C between 1906 and 2005 due to increase in anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. It is caused due to both external influences such as changes in solar radiation and volcanism and anthropogenic activities which greatly contributes to changes in the atmosphere that began with the industrial revolution. These changes may culminate in adverse impact on human health and the biosphere on which we depend. The multi-faceted interactions among the humans, microbes and the rest of the biosphere, have started reflecting an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) i.e. CO2, CH4 and N2O, causing warming across the globe along with other cascading consequences in the form of shift in rainfall pattern, melting of ice, rise in sea level etc. Agriculture is likely to suffer due to increased temperature, drought, erratic weather, pests and diseases, etc. Therefore, a substantial investment in mitigation of climate change is required to maintain current yields and to amplify food production and quality to meets the demands. `