eChapters

Abstract

Climate change or elements of variability is a matter of great concern production positive, negative or natural impact on pest dynamics because of the specific nature of interactions of host, the pest and the environment. New pest such as Rice Whorl maggot, Flea beetal in rice/soybean and bark eating beetle in citrus are emerging with the change in climate pattern. Pest outbreaks in epemic form such as Rice hispa and rice ear cutting caterpillar are also noted. Location specific IPM packages with an emphasis on biological control are the need of the hour considering the threat of environmental pollution. The ecosystem diversification along with the study on natural enemies, spiders and coccinellids may be brought under purview.

Climate change is increasing the likelihood that invasive insects will establish, spread and cause economic damage in new geographical regions. Invasive species commonly possess high reproductive capacity, broad host ranges, environmental tolerance, ecological adaptability and competitive advantages. Rising temperatures and changing humidity and rainfall patterns can create favourable habitats beyond their traditional ranges. Extreme weather and global trade may further support their movement and establishment. Once introduced, invasive insects can compete with native species, disrupt ecosystems and cause serious crop losses. This chapter examines the relationship between climate change and invasive insect pests and emphasizes early detection, quarantine, surveillance, forecasting and coordinated management.

Introduction

Water and food security are the key challenges under climate change as both are highly vulnerable to continuously changing climatic patterns. Climate change has resulted in increases in globally averaged mean annual air temperature and variations in regional precipitation and these changes are expected to continue and intensify in the future. The projected changes in climate patterns over India include increase in surface temperature, variations in rainfall, increasing occurrence of extreme weather events like floods and droughts, rise in sea levels and impact on the Himalayan glaciers. Sectors of the Indian economy are most likely to be impacted by such changes in climate are those dependent on natural resources, namely agriculture, water and forestry. The likely impacts such as reduction in food production, water scarcity, loss of forest biomass Climate change is expected to bring more intense and more frequent extreme weather events including droughts and floods in India. The global atmospheric concentration of carbon di-oxide CO₂ for increased from preindustrial value of about 280 ppm to about 410 ppm at the present (2021). The global increase in CO₂ concentration is primarily due to fossil fuel use and land use change. Atmospheric methane was 1803 ppb in 2011, this is 150% greater than before 1750. Atmospheric nitrous oxide (N₂O) was 324 ppb in 2011, this is 150% greater than before 1750 (Table 1). These increase in GHGs have resulted in warming of the climate system by 0.74°C between 1906 and 2005.

The climate system is the highly complex system consisting of five major components; the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the land surface and the biosphere, and the interactions among them. The climate system evolves in time under the influence of its own internal dynamics and because of external forcings such as volcanic eruptions, solar variations and human-induced forcings such as the changing composition of the atmosphere and land-use.

The term ‘climate variability’ is often used to denote deviations of climatic statistics over a given period of time (e.g., a month, season or year) from the long-term statistics relating to the corresponding calendar period. In this sense, climate variability is measured by those deviations, which are usually termed anomalies.

‘Climate change’ refers to a statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended period (typically decades or longer). Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings, or due to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. The United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines ‘climate change’ as ‘a change of climate behaviour which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods’. The UNFCCC thus makes a distinction between ‘climate change’ attributable to human activities altering the atmospheric composition, and ‘climate variability’ attributable to natural causes. Climate change is a long-term shift in weather conditions measured by changes in temperature, precipitation, wind, snow cover, and other indicators.

A key difference between climate variability and change is in persistence of ‘anomalous’ conditions. In other words, events that are used to be rare occur more frequently, or vice versa. Occasionally, an event or sequence of events occurs that has never been recorded before, such as the exceptional tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 or hurricane season in the Atlantic in 2005. Yet even that could be a part of natural climate variability. If such a season does not recur within the next 30 years, by looking back it could be called as an exceptional year, but not a ‘climate change’. Only a persistent series of unusual events taken in the context of regional climate parameters can suggest that a potential change in climate has occurred.

Introduction

Climate change has been realised during 1840s when indisputable evidence of former ice ages was obtained. The climate has altered sufficiently in many parts of the world even within the last few decades which will affect the possibilities for agriculture and settlement. Reliable weather records have been kept only during the last hundred years or so, but proxy indicators of past conditions from tree rings, pollen in bog and lake sediments, ice core records of physical and chemical parameters, and ocean foraminifera in sediments provide a wealth of paleoclimatic data. The standard interval adopted by the World Meteorological Organization for climatic statistics is thirty years:1901–30, 1931–60, for example. However, for historical records and proxy indicators of climate, longer, arbitrary time intervals may be necessary to calculate average values. Tree rings and ice cores can give seasonal/annual records, while peat bog and ocean sediments may provide records with only 100- to 1,000-year time resolution. Hence, short-term changes and the true rates of change may, or may not, be identifiable.

The present climatic state is usually described in terms of an average value (arithmetic mean, or the median value in a frequency distribution), a measure of variation about the mean (the standard deviation, or interquartile range), the extreme values, and often the shape of the frequency distribution. A change in climate can occur in several different ways, for example, there may be a shift in the mean level, or a gradual trend in the mean values. The variability may be periodic, quasi-periodic or non-periodic, or alternatively it may show a progressive trend . First, it is important to determine whether such changes are real or whether they are an artefact of changes in instrumentation, observational practices, station location, or the surroundings of the instrumental site, or due to errors in the transcribed data. Even when changes are real, it may be difficult to ascribe them to unique causes because of the complexity of the climate system. Natural variability operates over a wide range of time scales, and superimposed on these natural variations in climate are the effects of human activities.

Stored-product insects damage grains, cereals, pulses and other commodities, causing quantitative losses and deterioration in food quality and nutritional value. Climate change influences temperature and humidity within storage environments, directly affecting insect development, reproduction, survival and population growth. Warmer conditions may shorten life cycles, increase the number of generations and expand the distribution of important storage pests. Poor storage structures and inadequate pest management further increase these risks, particularly in developing countries. This chapter examines the influence of changing climatic conditions on stored-product pests and emphasizes improved storage design, monitoring, sanitation and climate-adaptive management practices for protecting stored food and maintaining food security.

Abstract

Climate change is a change in the distribution of weather over periods of time that range. The effect of climate change is now visible every where including animal farm industry. Projected temperature rise around 2-5oC by 2100 due to climate change is likely estrus, start estrus and decline in reproduction efficiency of livestock species Climate change may have a significant effect on livestock and other animals through is impact on diseases Zoonotic diseases which can be transmitted between vertebrate animals and humans are a matter of great concerns. There is an urgent need for adoption of integrated approaches towards mitigation of advance effects of climate change in animal production. There are nutritional strategies to reduce enteric methane production. Surveillance and monitoring with various adaption strategies are to be brought under purvision to reduce adverse impact of climatic variability in livestock 

Mites are economically important pests of agricultural and horticultural crops whose development and population dynamics are strongly influenced by environmental conditions. Rising temperatures, drought, reduced humidity and altered rainfall can accelerate mite reproduction, shorten generation time and increase infestation severity. Climate change may expand the geographical range of damaging species, alter host suitability and disturb interactions with predatory mites and other natural enemies. Increased pesticide use following outbreaks may further disrupt biological control and encourage resistance. This chapter examines climate-related changes in mite biology, distribution and pest status and presents adaptive management strategies involving surveillance, resistant cultivars, biological control and integrated pest-management practices.

Plant-parasitic nematodes are important soil-borne pests that reduce crop productivity by feeding on roots and interfering with water and nutrient absorption. Temperature, soil moisture, rainfall, carbon dioxide and host-plant conditions influence their development, reproduction, survival and geographical distribution. Climate change may allow certain nematode species to expand into new regions, complete additional generations and cause greater crop damage. Drought, flooding and altered soil conditions may also modify interactions among nematodes, plants, microorganisms and natural enemies. This chapter examines the likely effects of climate change on important plant-parasitic nematodes and discusses monitoring, forecasting and adaptive management approaches for climate-resilient crop protection.

Introduction

In India, almost 85 % of our population resides in rural areas and the same proportion is dependent on agriculture for sustenance and animal husbandry for additional income. Distribution of livestock is more equitable compared to that of land and about 85 percent of livestock are owned by the landless, marginal and small landholding families. This sector provides employment for the farmers through livestock farming as well as in processing, value addition and marketing of livestock products.

Rapid population, economic growth, increased demand for livestock products such as meat and dairy products, in?uences the present livestock production systemtowards intensive production. There is increased con?ict over scarce resources such as land, water, food grains etc. Losing livestock assets for rural communities might lead to abject poverty with serious effect ontheir livelihoods. The climate change impact will worsen the vulnerability of livestock systems and those farmers depending on livestock, particularly the poor.

Predatory arthropods provide valuable ecosystem services by suppressing agricultural pests and maintaining ecological balance. Important predators include ladybird beetles, lacewings, predatory bugs, spiders, mites and other groups that consume harmful insects at different developmental stages. Their small body size and ectothermic nature make them sensitive to changing temperature and moisture regimes. Global warming can affect their metabolism, development, body size, fecundity, longevity, dispersal and geographical distribution. Climate change may also disrupt temporal and spatial relationships between predators and their prey. This chapter examines the effects of climatic changes on predatory arthropods and their continuing role in natural and applied biological control.

Coffee is grown at higher elevation across the Western Ghats between 750 and 1200 m amsl. It requires a certain degree of shade for its better performance. The annual rainfall over the coffee growing tracts varies between 1400 and 2600mm, having uni/bi-model rainfall with prolonged dryspell from November to May. It is more so over North of the Western Ghats. The mean annual maximum temperature varies between 24 and 30⁰C while the minimum between 15 and 18⁰C. The difference between maximum and minimum temperatures (temperature range) varies between 5 and 16⁰C across the coffee tract. The ‘Monsooned Malabar Coffee’ is a specialty coffee produced from the erstwhile ‘Malabar Region’. It undergoes certain changes in physical and biochemical characters when the coffee beans are processed during the summer monsoon (June to September). It is processed at Mangalore, located in Coastal Karnataka. The processing location experiences heavy rainfall of more than 1000 mm in July, followed by 950 mm in June and 600 mm in August. Out of 3264 mm of annual rainfall, 2852 mm is received during the monsoon period. It accounts more than 80 per cent of annual rainfall. The maximum temperature during the monsooning varies between 28 and 30°C while night temperature revolves between 22 and 24°C. Being located in the tropics along the West Coast, the crop processing environment in terms of surface air temperature is relatively uniform and moderate with a characteristic feature of heavy clouds and continuous rainfall during the monsoon period.

Rice is one of the major staple food of the world’s population. About 114 countries grow rice and more than 50 have an annual production of 100,000 tonnes or more. Asian farmers produce about 90 per cent of the total, with two countries, China and India, growing more than half of the total crop. For most rice producing countries where annual production exceeds one million tonne, rice is the staple food. In Bangaldesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmer, Thailand and Vietnam, rice provides 50–80 per cent of the total calories consumed.

Soil supports diverse arthropod communities, including insects, mites, springtails, spiders, millipedes and centipedes. These organisms contribute to decomposition, nutrient cycling, soil formation, microbial regulation and food-web stability. Their activities improve soil fertility, structure and overall ecosystem functioning. However, soil arthropods are highly responsive to temperature, moisture, vegetation and other environmental factors. Global warming, altered rainfall, drought and changes in soil properties can modify their diversity, abundance, distribution and ecological interactions. Despite their importance, climate-change effects on soil arthropods remain comparatively understudied. This chapter examines their ecological roles, relationships with soil properties and responses to changing climatic conditions in agricultural ecosystems.

2.1 Introduction

Weather has always been a popular topic but in the recent past it has received wide attention and debate as the public concern has increased about unforeseen changes in our climate. Over the 20^th century the average temperature of the earth has increased by 0.4 -0.8^oC. This increase is expected to continue and by 2100 the average global temperature is likely to be 1.4 - 5.8 ^oC warmer. One of the anticipated effects of climate change is the possible increase in both frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as heat waves, cold waves, hurricanes, floods and drought spells. The warming of the earth may fuel interactions between the ocean and atmosphere that will amplify the frequency and intensity extreme weather events. The possible changes in the frequency, distribution and intensity of extreme climate events have a significant influence at local, regional and global scales due to their multi-sectoral impacts on the overall economy.

Introduction

Climate change has been, and continues to be one of the important causes of low productivity from animal agriculture in tropical countries like India through crop failures, fodder scarcity and increased incidence of endemic animal diseases. It impacts animal agriculture and cause immediate danger for human societies as livelihoods and food production are being adversely affected. Farm ruminant animals contribute to food supply by converting low-value materials, inedible or unpalatable for human, into milk, meat, and eggs and directly contribute to nutritional security. Besides contributing over one-fourth to the agricultural GDP, it provides employment to 18 million people in principal or subsidiary status in India. Nearly two-thirds of farm households are associated with farm animal rearing and 80% of them are small landholders (≤2 ha). As a result of various socio-economic and market driven factors, during the last one decade, large scale transformation took place in both extensive and intensive animal agriculture with regards to type and breed of the animal. A lot of high yielding, low disease resistant and more vulnerable crossbreed animal population have been increased in present animal production systems inorder to meet the market demands. Climate changes could impact severely the economic viability and production of these intensive animal production systems through increased incidence of drought/?oods/cyclones/hailstorms etc. Drought and high ambient temperatures in particular, affects production of milk, meat and egg, reproduction, health of animals and condition of pastures. Changes in pasture and crop biomass availability and quality affect animal production through changes in daily or seasonal feed supplies. Heavy rains and associated ?oods would washout the fodder resources and animals. Recent incidences of severe hail storms are causing brutal injuries to the grazing animals. To mitigate the adverse affects of extreme weather events and cope with changing climate, much precised resilient technologies suitable to local conditions and resources are needed. Hence, one should be critical in recommending smart animal-agriculture technologies in view of much diversified and heterogeneous group of farmers and the resources accessible to them. This will help in sustainable productivity from animal-agriculture and profitability to the farmers even in the era of climate change.

Abstract

Increased human activities such as agriculture, mining, and manufacturing have resulted in rapid increase of green house gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. Atmospheric accumulation of the GHGs results into global warming and climate variability or change. Climate change due to enhanced greenhouse effect arising as a result of human activity is considered a major global environmental threat to mankind today. Perhaps nowhere in the globe are people more vulnerable to climate change than in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Most livelihoods in SSA are climate-sensitive due to over dependency on land and other natural resources and are thus perched on the brink of disaster due to climate change.

Climate change is now undoubtedly affecting millions of people across Africa and it actually threatens to wipe-out the past and current global efforts made to tackle poverty unless urgent and robust decisions and actions are taken. This is also a wake-up call for the world to adopt alternative development models that would ensure massive cuts in GHG emissions to avoid a potentially irreversible change. Scientists have warned that unless the global community, especially the developed countries, take genuine steps now to reduce their emissions; many more millions of people in the developing world will be negatively impacted by climate change.

Key facts

    
•    Agriculture is the major land use across the globe. Agriculture production (plant growth) is highly dependent on climate since crop growth is influenced by solar radiation, temperature and precipitation. Agriculture is also sensitive to climate variability and weather extremes (droughts, floods, severe storms).
    
•    The yields of C₃ crops (rice, wheat, and soybean) is expected to increase (10-20%) with predicted doubling of CO₂ concentrations compared to C₄ crops (maize, sorghum, millet, sugarcane) since C₃ plants respond readily/positively to increased CO₂ levels. Therefore, CO₂ enrichment may benefit temperate and humid tropical agriculture compared to semi-arid tropics.
    
•    The predicted rise of temperature could impact crop and horticulture yield if it exceeds optimal temperature range. For example, low latitudes crops are being grown near the limits of temperature tolerance and global warming may put them to higher stress.
    
•    On a world wide basis, global warming would benefit the mid to high latitude zones for agriculture (for a small change of temperature of 1-3^ºC), whereas low latitudes, semi-arid and tropical areas will have much reduced crop and livestock yields. However, adaptation measures may reduce such impacts.

Key facts

Agriculture
    
·    Agriculture production (plant growth) is highly dependent on climate since crop growth is influenced by solar radiation, temperature and precipitation and sensitive to climate variability and weather extremes (droughts, floods, severe storms).
    
·    Climate change is projected to have an effect on local agriculture and the net result could be harmful (e.g. frequent droughts, salinization of agriculture land due to sea level rise) or beneficial, (e.g. enhance CO₂ and higher yield, longer growing season, increased precipitation) or mixed.
    
·    Climate change or a doubling of GHGs (2 x CO₂) is projected to cause both gains and losses of agriculture land.
    
·    Each crop has a specific temperature range at which vegetative and reproductive growth will proceed at the optimal rate and exposures to extreme temperatures during these phases can impact growth and yield. Higher temperatures during the reproductive stage of development can affect pollen viability, fertilization and grain or fruit formation. 
    
·    Warming generally allow plants to grow faster that are below their optimum temperature, however for cereal crops faster growth means there is less time for the grain itself to grow and mature, reducing yields. 
    
·    Night-time temperatures are rising faster than daytime temperatures and are expected to continue rise in the future. According to International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines, the rise of night time temperature decreases rice yield by 10% for each 1°C increase in growing-season night time temperature in the dry season.

Key Facts
        
Agricultural food
    
·    There are multiple pathways through which climate-related factors may impact food contamination and food safety, food quality, foodborne diseases including changes in temperature and precipitation patterns, increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, ocean warming and acidification and changes in the transport pathways of complex contaminants.
    
·    All or most foodborne pathogens and their associated diseases are linked to changing environmental conditions, the notable of which are campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis and vibriosis.
    
·    An estimated 30% of reported cases of salmonellosis across much of continental Europe have been attributed to warm temperatures, especially when they exceed a threshold of 6°C above average. Likewise both in Australia and Canada a positive correlation was found between increasing temperature and incidence of salmonellosis.
    
·    Zoonosis such as Rift Valley Fever (RVF), West Nile Fever, tick-borne diseases and non-zoonotic animal diseases such as Blue tongue, African horse sickness, African swine fever are examples of animal diseases whose distribution is expected to be strongly influenced by climate change and variability.
    
·    Mycotoxin is a toxic secondary metabolite produced by filamentous fungi, commonly known as moulds and may contaminate agricultural commodities (food) by growing on them both before and after harvest, whenever the humidity and temperature are permissive. The most prominent mycotoxins are aflatoxins, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, ochratoxin-A, fumonisin, and patulin.
    
·    The humans ingestion of mycotoxins occur through consumption of the mycotoxin contaminated plant-based foods, such as grains, maize, barley, rice, coffee, nuts and their residues, and metabolites in animal-derived foods, for example aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in milk and meat products. In addition, mycotoxins may occur in beer and wine.