Crop yield resilience in marginal environments and climate change

Abstract

Due to climatic changes, food safety became a big problem to fulfil the needs of increasing global communities. To overcome this, suitable crop predictions under various meteorological and agricultural factors are necessary. Many studies have been done on the effect of temperature and adaptations in agricultural productions. However, they often failed to understand the uncertainty of the yield, the timing of impact and the effectiveness of the adaptation strategy. Increase in temperature by 20 C in tropical and temperate regions resulted in decreased yields of Corn, rice and wheat. Even though maize is less reactive than rice and wheat, crop level adaptations increased the yield by 7-15% that partially helped to overcome these losses. By the end of 21st century, climate related yield losses are expected to increase in tropical regions. High CO₂ content can improve C3 crop yields under certain conditions. C4 crops benefit mainly in drought stress conditions. However, these effects vary within the region. They are limited to occurring at lower latitudes. Integrated approaches using process- and data-driven models, biotic stress simulations, and multifactorial field experiments are important to effectively assess and respond to these challenges. Such methods are vital to us if we better adapt our strategies and ensure that food is globally safe when the climate changes.