Chapter 17 - The altered crop pattern and livelihoods in changing climate

Abstract

The world population is expected to grow to almost 10billion by 2050, and agriculture is hence crucial for ensuring food, nutrition, and livelihood security. This indicates that agricultural production and yields must be raised globally. The main issues facing modern agriculture are stagnating net sown area, plateauing yield levels, declining soil quality, decreasing per capita land availability, and the negative effects of climate change such as the melting of glaciers, a rise in sea level, and an increase in greenhouse gas concentration. As it will not just have an influence on crops but also on meat production, fisheries, and other essential components of our food supply and, eventually, livelihoods. The importance of adopting suitable cropping patterns in a developing country cannot be overemphasized. The different crop patterns vary with the diversification of several discussed strengths, including soil, erosion, flooding, waterlogging, precipitation, and source of irrigation. Increased crop production could be expected if the irrigation area expansion prevails. Agriculture production in rain-fed regions, which constitute about 68% of the area under cultivation, varies from year to year. The agriculture sector needs an appropriate transition in cropping patterns to ensure sustainability in the growth of the sector and the inclusion of land-constrained farmers in the intensification process. Advances in understanding the sensitivity of crops to weather, climate, and other factors may indicate that the impact of these factors on crop yields and quality may be more severe than previously thought.