eChapters

Key facts
        
Agriculture and livestock
    
·    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines adaptation as ‘adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities’. The adaptation can be considered as tackling the effects of climate change, whereas mitigation is tackling the cause of climate change such as reducing the sources or enhancing the sinks of greenhouse gases. There could be different types of adaptation such as autonomous (spontaneous) and planned adaptation (policy decision).
    
·    Autonomous adaptation includes altering varieties and/or species those are more appropriate to the altered thermal regime or with increased resistance to heat shock and drought; altering the timing or location of cropping activities; altering fertilizer rates to maintain grain or fruit quality consistent with the climate and altering amounts and timing of irrigation and other water management practices; diversifying income by integrating other farming activities such as livestock raising, integrated agriculture and aquaculture/fish farming; development and use of varieties and species resistant to pests and diseases, wider use of technologies to ‘harvest’ water, conserve soil moisture (e.g. crop residue retention) and to use water more effectively in areas where rainfall is projected to decrease and using seasonal climate forecasting to reduce production risk.

Key Facts
    
·    The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines ‘climate change’ as a ‘Change of climate 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 the comparable time periods’.
    
·    The main green house gases (GHGs) that have caused the global climate change or global warming are carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O).
    
·    CO₂ is the principal anthropogenic GHG that affects the earth’s radiative balance. It is the reference gas against which other GHGs are measured and therefore has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 1. CH₄ and N₂O have a GWP of 21 and 310 respectively.
    
·    CO₂ is responsible for most of the enhanced green house effect of more than 50%, CH₄ for about 10-15% and N₂O for about 8%.
    
·    The global atmospheric concentrations of CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O have increased since 1750. While CO₂ increased from a pre-industrial value of 280 ppm to 379 ppm in 2005, CH₄ increased from 715 ppb to 1774 ppb and N₂O increased from 270 ppb to 319 ppb during the same period.

Agricultural production system has gone a long way in supporting the world’s food requirement. The projected estimates revealed that to meet the global population of about 11.3 billion in 2050, the global demand for cereal will increase by 60% (Rosegrant and Cline, 2003, Bengtsson et al., 2006). Agriculture is considered as the chief agent of environmental transformation. The unrestrained attitude of Homo sapiens towards the use of natural resource catalyzing the causes leading to global warming, has increased the challenges manifold to provide food security in a sustainable manner. Increased concentration of CO2 and other green house gases have resulted in an increase of 0.760 C in surface temperature globally since nineteenth century and the mean global surface temperature is predicted to increase by an additional 1.30C to 1.80C by 2050( IPCC, 2007). Sinha and Swaminathan (1991) reported that an increase of 20C in temperature could decrease the rice yield by about 0.75 t/ha in the high yield areas and a 0.5oC increase in winter temperature would reduce wheat yield 0.45 t/ha.

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.

Key facts
    
·    The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines food security as a ’situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’. There are four dimensions of food security: Food Availability (availability of sufficient food for all people at all times, i.e. production); Food Accessibility (physical and economic access to food at all times, i.e. affordability), Food Utilization (access to food that is nutritious, safe and produced in environmentally sustainable ways, i.e. nutrients in food and food safety); and Food Stability (reliability of adequate food supply).
    
·    Agriculture is important for food security since it provides food for the people and is the primary source of livelihood for 36% of the world’s total workforce. In the heavily populated countries such as Asia and the Pacific, about 40% to 50%, and in sub-Saharan Africa, about two-thirds of the working population make their living from agriculture.
    
·    Agriculture, livestock and fisheries production are all sensitive to climate and are affected by its changes. Climate change will increase hunger and malnutrition, emergence of new pests and diseases and will threaten fishing and aquaculture industries.

Introduction 
Chapter 15 provides a comprehensive analysis of climate change and its profound effects on agriculture and global food systems. This chapter delves into the science of climate change, focusing on its impacts on agricultural practices, climate-smart strategies, and the role of specialized climate change centers and institutes. The chapter begins with an exploration of the impacts of climate change on agriculture, detailing how shifts in temperature, precipitation patterns, and extreme weather events affect crop yields, livestock production, and overall agricultural productivity. It highlights the vulnerabilities of different agricultural systems and regions to climate change. Climate-smart agricultural practices are central to adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change. This section covers adaptation strategies, such as adjusting planting dates, diversifying crops, and improving water management. It also addresses mitigation strategies, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions through sustainable farming practices and enhancing carbon sequestration in soils. Adaptation and mitigation strategies are discussed in detail, with an emphasis on how these approaches can be integrated to address climate change comprehensively. The interplay between adaptation (adjusting to changing conditions) and mitigation (reducing the root causes of climate change) is examined, emphasizing the need for balanced and coordinated efforts. The chapter underscores the importance of climate change centers and institutes in addressing food security. These institutions play a crucial role in research, policy development, and the implementation of climate-smart practices. They provide valuable data, tools, and guidance for managing the impacts of climate change on agriculture. The impact of climate change centers and institutes on global warming is analyzed, focusing on how these organizations contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing adaptive capacity. Their role in advancing climate science and supporting climate action is highlighted. Modern concepts in climate change centers and institutes are reviewed, showcasing innovative approaches and technologies that are shaping the field of climate science and its application to agriculture. The chapter concludes with strategies for combating food security and global warming challenges. It emphasizes the need for continued research, international collaboration, and the adoption of effective climate-smart practices to ensure sustainable agricultural systems and enhance global food security.

INTRODUCTION

The debate on climate change is going on. From the report of the Inter Governmental Panel on climate change (IPCC), a premier organization set up in 1998 by the World Meteorological Organisation and United Nations Environment Programme, it is known that the average surface temperature has increased over the 20th century by about 0. 6ºC. The number may seem insignificant but it is an unprecedented rise. In the past 150 years, the 11 hottest years were witnessed. It says that 1990s was the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year since 1861. Worse, the Artic is warming twice as rapidly as the rest of the world and there is a distinct possibility of the Greenland Ice Sheet collapsing altogether and pushing up sea levels by several metres. It is predicted that 2035 is the year when Himalayan glaciers may totally disappear causing catastrophic disruptions. Unfortunately, India is among the countries that will suffer the most serious consequences as a result of global warming. Following is the probable effect of global warming.

Climate change exposes onion production to irregular rainfall, heat, drought, flooding and increasing pest and disease pressure. These stresses can reduce yield, damage bulb quality, increase storage losses and threaten smallholder livelihoods. This chapter uses research literature and case studies to examine resilience at farm, community and supply-system levels. It emphasizes location-specific varieties, crop rotation, micro-irrigation, efficient input use, digital forecasting, protected production, improved storage and reliable cold chains. Farmer organizations, extension services, subsidies and supportive institutions are also important. Sustainable onion farming requires agronomic, technological, socioeconomic and policy measures to function together, enabling growers to adapt to climatic uncertainty while conserving resources and maintaining profitability.

Abstract
Global food production needs to double by 50% by the middle of the 21st century to ensure food and nutritional security for 9 billion people. Climate change, particularly atmospheric CO2 and temperature, has a complex impact on sustainable food security. Climate change is a significant constraint on legume production globally, which is a crucial food, feed, and fodder source. Legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen through bacteria in root nodules, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and boosting soil C-sequestration. Climate change positively impacts grain legumes by allowing them to allocate above-ground
photosynthates into below-ground parts (nodules), improving rhizospheres’ activities, plant biomass and nutrient use efficacy. However, temperature can also negatively affect grain legumes, leading to flower abortion and abnormal pod filling. However, climate models predict more extreme events in the future, affecting legume growth and development. Heat stress, elevated CO2 concentration, drought, and rainfall variability impact legume crop production, requiring adaptation options. Results show that legumes with C3 fixation pathways show higher photosynthesis, reduced photorespiration, biomass production, and water use efficiency under atmospheric CO2. However, temperature increases lead to faster development, shorter life cycles, and lower yields. Legumes can cope with atmospheric CO2 up to
1000 ppm by storing sucrose and starch. Protein synthesis and water stress also help legumes adapt to changing climates. To achieve targeted yields in changing climatic conditions, agronomic and genetic interventions must be integrated. Targeted breeding programs should select high-yielding, biotic stress-resistant, and abiotic stress-tolerant genotypes adapted to atmospheric CO2 and temperature conditions. Integrating grain legumes with desirable traits can provide resilience against climate change.
Keywords: Climate change, Grain legumes, Nutritional security, Resilience, Rhizosphere, Water Use Effciency

Application of Climate-Smart Agriculture

Agricultural production systems are expected to change in response to climate change and ensure food security in different countries. Climate variability may further affect the agricultural production in future. To meet such challenges, there are many options to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on agricultural systems, make them resilient to climate change, and reduce emissions. Many technologies and practices can increase crop yields, farm income, and input-use efficiency, and may reduce GHG emissions (Khatri Chhetri et al. 2017). Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is suggested to address the adverse effects of climate change and ensure food security. It is intended to achieve the three objectives of ensuring productivity, adapting and building resilience and reducing emission of GHG.

Dried Cocoa Bean have chemical composition as: The shell (testa) represents 10-14% dry weight of the cocoa bean, while the kernel or cotyledon is made up of most of the remaining 86-90%. The cotyledon confers characteristic flavours and aromas of chocolate and is composed of two types of parenchyma storage cells.

Before processing, the quality ofbeans is evaluated for the following indicators:

1. Degree of fermentation
2. Moisture content (maximum 6%)
3. Number of defects
4. Number of broken beans
5. Bean count (number per 100 g)

Cocoa butter, also called the obroma oil, is a pale-yellow, edible fat extracted from the cocoa bean. It is used to make chocolate, as well as some ointments, toiletries, and pharmaceuticals. Cocoa butter has a cocoa flavor and aroma. Its melting point is just below human body temperature. Cocoa butter that has been refined by neutralization with an alkaline solution and decoloured with for example bentonite, activated carbon etc. Subsequent deodorization can also be applied. The type of process used may affect the quality of the cocoa butter. For example, a too high deodorization temperature or a too severe alkalization can completely alter its setting (solidification) characteristics. High-quality raw materials are needed to make the best quality cocoa butter. The other important factors for high quality are the origin of the beans and the processing conditions used. Press cocoa butter, which is most commonly used in the chocolate industry, is only filtered and (partly) deodorized to obtain the desired flavour. Cocoa butter contains a high proportion of saturated fats as well as monounsaturated oleic acid, which typically occurs in each triglyceride.

Introduction

Botanical name of cocoa is Theobroma cacao and family is Malvaceae. The cocoa bean, also cacao bean or simply cocoa or cacao, is the dried and fully fermented fatty seed of Theobroma cacao, from which cocoa solids and cocoa butter are extracted. Cocoa flavour is the most distinct feature of chocolate, thus cocoa beans are the basis of chocolate. Dried cocoa beans are usually processed into cocoa butter, which contains fat between 56% and 58%, made up of a mixture of triglycerides. Cocoa butter with this composition is good for making chocolate and has favourable hardness and a melting point of body temperature. Theobroma cacao originated from the Jungle of the Amazon in Brazil. Theobroma cacao consists of two subspecies: the Cacao, a subspecies known as the Criollo, which can be found in Central and South America, and spharocarpum, which is also called theForastero. The Criollo has superior and fine flavour. The pods are red and the beans have no color. Forastero has a green pod

Moisture Content
 
Two maximum moisture levels are provided to meet different climatic conditions and marketing practices. Lower values in the first column are suggested for countries with tropical climates or when long-term (more than one crop year) storage is a normal commercial practice. The values in the second column are suggested for more moderate climates or when other short term storage is the normal commercial practice.

India is bestowed with huge production of fruits, vegetables, cereals, millets, sugarcane along with meat production, milk production, fish production and poultry. Despite such a huge production in India, owing to perishable nature of these produce around 25-30 percent of the produce is being lost as post harvest loss. The one important reason for this may be the production of the crops are season specific and during the peak season the production is more while demand for consumption is less. It may be possible to cut down these losses to great extent, if these produces may be transported from the produces states to those who are not producing due to agro-climatic reasons. So for making transportation of the perishable a successful venture in decreasing post harvest loss, there must be proper cool chain management facilities both at producing site as well as marketing place. The aim of the cool chain management must be to keep the produce in saleable condition during entire storage periods. Some products are stored for short period whereas fresh fruits, vegetables require cold storage. Foods before keeping into the storage room need some pre-storage treatments for better results.

Introduction

The cold chain is a meticulously managed series of actions using specialized equipment to ensure products remain within a specific low-temperature range from production to consumption (ASHRAE, 2024; IIR, 2024). This unbroken sequence encompasses refrigerated production, storage, and distribution activities, safeguarding the safety and quality of perishable and thermo-sensitive goods like agricultural commodities (such as fresh produce, meat, dairy, seafood, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, flowers, wine, etc.), processed foods and pharmaceuticals (Aung and Chang, 2014; Awan, 2023). For climacteric fruits like bananas, custard apples, apples, pears, tomatoes, mangoes, and avocados, cold storage facilitates controlled ripening, extending the time between harvest and consumption. Cold chain management, integral to the overall supply chain, requires expertise in maintaining temperature, air quality, and adherence to regulatory standards. Any disruption in this process can lead to product spoilage and financial implications (FAO, 2019). The management of the cold chain system is crucial for preserving the freshness, taste, and nutritional value of fruits from harvest to consumption (Kader, 2003).

19.1 Introduction

Food safety is one of the important factor for food industry, regulatory agencies and consumers. Nowadays consumers are demanding food which is safe and of high quality in terms of nutrition due to a healthier life style. Food safety refers to all those hazards, that make food injurious to the health of the consumer and it is not negotiable. Food may be contaminated physically, chemically or microbiologically, mainly microbial contamination is of high concern in the food industries. Various pathogenic and spoilage causing microorganisms, viruses, insects can deteriorate the food products and cause food borne illnesses. Therefore, there is a need to eliminate these undesirable microorganisms from the food industries to ensure food safety to the consumer. Various methods are available to eliminate these undesirable microorganisms such as thermal technologies like pasteurization, dehydration, retort processing, freezing etc. and non thermal technologies like microwave heating, Pulsed Electric Field (PEF), High Pressure Processing (HPP), Pulsed Light Technology, Ohmic Heating, Ultra sonics, Pulsed X-Rays. But these technologies have certain disadvantages like thermal technologies lowers the nutritional value and leads to unwanted changes in the foods' sensory attributes of the food products whereas non thermal technologies retain better nutritional and sensory quality of food than thermal technologies but they are cost effective, required specialised equipments and trained personnel. Cold plasma technology (CPT) is a non-thermal green technology used now-a-days for variety of application in various industries especially in food industry. It is proposed to be an alternative method for eliminating microorganism from the fresh produce. This technology does not require extreme process conditions and can be used as a good alternative source for food preservation without affecting its nutritional and sensory attributes. Plasma is an ionized gas, consisting of active species like positively and negatively charged ions, electrons, free radicals, and gas atoms, metastable and quanta of electromagnetic radiation (photons). When the energy source is turned off, active species used to disappear immediately, therefore cold plasma technology is environmental friendly and fulfilling all ecological standards. Based on the properties of plasma, it can be applied in various fields like electronics, life sciences, textile, packaging and food industries. In food industries, it is showing promising application by retaining the nutritional, functional, and sensory characteristics thus ensuring the fresh appearance of the food product and satisfying the consumer need.

Thermal heating methods are used from long time to decontaminate the food products from microorganism and therefore increase its shelf life and ultimately make the product safe for human consumption. But these methods diminish the sensory, physicochemical and nutritional properties of food (Barba et al., 2012). Also, the cost of generation of heat in manufacture of food product make the product costlier in thermal processing and also create environmental issue.

Cold plasma technology represents an innovative non-thermal approach for improving food safety while minimizing undesirable changes associated with conventional heat treatments. This chapter introduces the fundamental principles of cold plasma and explains how reactive species generated during plasma treatment can contribute to microbial inactivation and food decontamination. It examines major plasma-generation methods, including dielectric barrier discharge, corona discharge and microwave plasma systems. The chapter highlights the potential of cold plasma for preserving nutritional and sensory characteristics while reducing microbial hazards. It also considers technological challenges such as treatment uniformity, interactions between plasma and food matrices and the need for process optimization and regulatory validation for wider industrial adoption.