"SEC S20W1: Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture"
Hello my Steemit friends! it feels good to be back. I welcome you all to my blog. Agriculture, is one ancient human activity that has continued to promote global food security.
Agriculture has been one of the world's economic mainstay. It is the channel that ensures global food security is ensured. Agriculture, over time, has been faced with several challenges, which are traced to incidences of climate change. Climate change has been one major factor in food security crises.
Temperature and Precipitation Variations are a part of this menace that has bedeviled this sector. When there are variations in temperatures, this comes with adverse effects on crop performance as well as livestock production. In many cases, they fail to resist these harsh weather conditions and wither or die. The many crop and livestock failures that are seen today can be traced to variations in temperatures.
Changes in planting Seasons is another cause of climate change. We cannot alternate our crops because of the distortion we see in climate change. Crops fail to do better when there is no adherence to their planting season. Delays either because of heavy downpours, or lack of water could be challenging. This affects the overall crop yield expected during harvest.
Erosions and flooding problems: These are cases of extreme rains. Extreme rains cause the degradation of soil textures and, hence, erosion. During this time, soil nutrients and crops are washed away or leached, and crops are damaged or lodged in a manner that damage is inevitable. This poses economic losses to farmers and a threat to food security.
Increase in pest and disease prevalence within the agricultural planting cycle. Temperatures that promote the prevalence of pests and diseases are observed. This increase poses serious threats to crop yield and quality.
Extreme Rains, as I mentioned above, is one major challenge farmers face during climate change. A case where there are more waterlogs than required by our plants. Extreme rains cause waterlogging in our agricultural farm, which in turn suffocates plants' access to required oxygen and photosynthesis.
This invariably means that our crops would either suffer from root rot or fail, which are all linked to crop failures that reduce expected yield.
In a situation where flooding is experienced, the disaster becomes more devastating. Soil nutrients are either washed away or down, beyond the reach of plants. When plants are unable to have access to nutrients, they become malnourished, look pale, and weather out.
Lastly, it destroys our land and causes erosion. Erosion in one natural disaster no farmer wants around his planting area.
Extreme Droughts, on the other hand, mean a lack of water. Just like we have mentioned the disasters associated with extreme rains, extreme lack of. Rains. (Droughts) would also make our crop yield bad. When plans are starved of water, they pass through *water stress, which distorts their performances.
This also starves them of soil nutrients and moisture. When this happens, crop failures are likely to occur. The more crop failures that occur means more economic losses to the farmer as well as low-yield production
New pests and diseases are emerging as a result of climate change through these points;
Temperature & Precipitation Variations. Warmer temperatures are known to come with several outbreaks. Not only does it help incubate and breed more attack pests, but it also aids its distribution from place to place.
Pests that do not thrive well in a given temperature also migrate to other regions where they seem to be more active. In doing so, there is a concentration of pests, which makes it difficult for high crop performance when attacked.
Human activities have also been a major contribution to the new pest and disease distribution. Humans, through their visits and interaction across borders, also act as vectors. They carry along these pests and diseases from place to place.
In preventing some of these attacks on our crops, farmers need to apply biochemical methods that require the use of pesticides and others to combat them.
This can also be done by the use of natural methods. Natural methods that entail the use of birds on the farm. When they are introduced, they pick up all available insects/pests that ravage our crops.
Implementing some agro practices like crop rotations and use of cover crops. Some of these. practices are important in withstanding pests and diseases.
Our irrigation system will continue to evolve as climate change is imminent. This would change because of the use of water relative to the prevailing circumstances.
The use. of sprinklers has been developed to help have far-reaching touches on plants without having to incur waste.
The use of a drip irrigation system is also one that was introduced for efficiency. The use of this system ensures that water is supplied directly to the plant roots. This does not only remove cases of water wastage but also brings to the table precision.
The two best ways to respond to climate change are. by;
- Adaptation
- Mitigation
When we talk about Adaptation, we mean trying to climatize with the present challenges by seeking better ways to caution its effect thereof. This could be done by the use of climate-resilient crops and livestock hybrids. These are improved GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) that help withstand most of our climate change challenges.
Mitigation, on the other hand, means putting a stop to or reducing those activities that continue to undermine the climate health of our environment. Reduction of fossils or what we generally call greenhouse gas emission.
We have to imbibe good agro-practices like afforestation and reforestation. We have to promote these. and stop every form of deforestation.
I wish yo invite my friends here.
@eveetim, @rossnenye, @mkgirl77
Welcome to the agro-learning challenge season 20.
Observations and suggestions:
. You have a good understanding of climate change's impacts on agro activities with a nice explanation of each point.
. You have also explained nicely how extreme rains and droughts impact agricultural activities, emerging new pests and diseases, irrigation systems, and ways to respond to climate change.
. Generally, you have made a good publication.
Thank you for your participation.