Reducing vulnerability of fruit orchards to climate change

Abstract

CONTEXTFarmers are forced to undertake adaptive measures to protect their crops against climate change impacts. Fruit trees present farmers with unique adaptive challenges. In pursuit to expand the knowledge base on climate change effects on crops in underreported regions, we present herein data from Chile and Tunisia on the vulnerability of cherry and peach orchards to climate change and on possible measures to counter its impact. OBJECTIVESWe aimed to ascertain a) the extent to which fruit farming biophysical operations in Chile and Tunisia are vulnerable to climate change impacts, b) whether the vulnerability can be reduced through agronomic, technological or financial adaptive measures and, c) how to overcome challenges that may prevent implementation of these measures. METHODSThe study is based on face-to-face interviews with 801 peach and cherry farmers in Tunisia and Chile and three focus meetings with farm representatives. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSFruit farmers have used and are planning to use a number of agricultural, technological, and financial tools to reduce the vulnerability of their crops to climate change. Agronomical measures are focused on planting varieties with higher drought and disease resistance as well as lower winter chill requirements. Technological measures focus on installing nets reflects farmer regional experiences with crop hail damage and rain at the fruit maturing stage. Planned improvements in irrigation reflect anticipated future problems with water availability and drought. The decision not to implement adaptive measures is mainly linked to economic barriers. Specific actions are proposed to overcome these and other measure implementation barriers. SIGNIFICANCEThe self-reported experiences of fruit farmers provide valuable insight into the effectiveness of various climate change adaptive measures, which often differ from scientific expectations or recommendations. For example, farmers are not overly concerned about fulfilling winter chill requirements, they are also not well informed about all available climate change adaptive tools. In addition, many adaptive measures are not implemented due to administrative or financial barriers. To help address this, regionally-led cooperation between farmers, policy makers, industry, and scientists is needed to identify and overcome these barriers, allowing for the successful implementation of appropriate adaptive measures.