Temperature and Precipitation Changes and Possible Threats to Crop Production in Arid, Semi-arid and Tropical Forest Environment

Abstract

Changing climate presents one of the most challenging threats to food crop production throughout the agro-ecologies. Annual food crops on which we rely most on are sensitive to temperature and precipitation change as it not only affects the temperature and moisture of the surroundings but affects the levels in soils as well. While climate change will have global impacts on crop production, regional variation will be play significant role in tackling climate change problem. This study examines 10-30 years data on the regional variation in temperature and precipitation from one location each in Arid and semi-Arid climate, one location in Dry sub-Humid climate and six locations in the Tropical Forest climate. The data collected were critically analysed using 5-10 years moving average plots, linear trend analysis and t-test using SPSS® software. Depending on the location, results showed significant (P<0.05) increase in temperature ranging from 0.015-0.045oC. Increase was mostly in the last 5-10 years compared to 1983-1990. Also, this increment was higher in semi-Arid & Dry-humid climate (0.044-0.087oC) than in Tropical rainforest where the increase was 0.015oC. No significant (P>0.05) increase in temperature was observed in the Arid climate in the last 10 years. In tropical rainforest climate, increase in temperature (0.044oC) was higher in the metropolis area than the countryside. From the locations examined in this study, there was no significant change in the precipitation pattern in the last 10-30 years. Simple plots overlaying temperature changes on crop production data revealed mixed response. Groundnut (Arachis hypogea), Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterannea) and hungry rice (Digeteria exilis) showed tolerance to increased temperatures in the Semi-Arid tropics. Rice (Oryza sativa) in Tropical Malaysia showed increased in yield with temperature. What may be important to note here is the resilience of the genotypes to temperature changes so that these genotypes could be further studied for adaptation to climate change. No doubt that there is evidence of increase in temperature, regional variations will exist and will play an important role in mitigating climate change.