Adaptation to Climate Change in Agriculture by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811392351
Publisher: Springer Singapore

8.2 Changes in Agro-Climatic Resources and Climate Disasters

The climate warming has changed agro-climatic resources and led to more frequent climate disasters which could affect crop growth and production in China.

8.2.1 Changes in Agro-Climatic Resources

Global warming alters temperature and precipitation, and exerts significant impacts on crop growth and production through changes in agro-climatic resources (Fischer et al. 2005). There are rising concerns on how climate change has altered and will continue to alter agro-climatic conditions in China (Fan et al. 2017; Kuo et al. 2015). As of 2019, China has experienced a temperature increase of 1.2 °C since 1960. Northeast China has shown a stronger increase of 0.36 °C per decade with a winter precipitation increase with an average rate about 16% per decade (Piao et al. 2010). It has been acknowledged that warming for the past 50 years has led to a prolonged growing season and northward expansion of multi-cropping systems in China (Yang et al. 2010). The growing season is prolonged by 1.16 days per year in the specific agro-climate zone. The green up of vegetation in spring is advanced by 0.79 days per year, whereas crop dormancy in autumn is delayed by 0.37 days per year (Piao et al. 2006). The annual number of frost days showed a decreasing trend in Northern China (Fu et al. 2015; Hallmann et al. 2017).

Agro-climatic resources have significantly changed during the last 50 years in China (Yin et al. 2016). It is reported that this change has impacted the potential yield, timing of planting, geographical distribution of multi-cropping area, and crop varieties used by farmers (Altieri et al. 2015; Jones et al. 2017; Ye et al. 2015). For example, due to temperature increase and precipitation change in the North China Plain, water availability in the multi-cropping systems currently operating is unsustainable and results in overpumping of groundwater used for irrigation to meet the crop requirement (Wang et al. 2017). Southwest China may experience a significant decrease in humidity, and crop production would face a severe drought risk (Song et al. 2012). In regions where agro-climatic resources have been improved, such as Northern China, a warmer climate has led to a longer growing season than previously. A more intense multi-cropping system can be introduced to increase production in higher latitudes (Tian et al. 2014). A spatially explicit understanding of changes in agro-climatic resources in the historical past and projected future could support policymakers, farming communities, and other stakeholders to evaluate production risk, plan adaptation and mitigation, and improve field management.

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