Impact of Climate Change on the Production of Major Food and Commercial Crops in India: A Five Decadal Study

Climate change is posing a great threat to agriculture and food security, especially in the agriculture oriented and developing countries like India. The present study was carried out to critically study the impact of climate change on productivity of major cereal and commercial crops by statistically analyzing the time series data.  The analysis inferred that crop production of both food and commercial crops in India has increased since 1960-61. It was observed that major food crops (rice & wheat) were adversely affected by increase in maximum temperature and decrease in rainfall. The alternative measures such as area under cultivation, irrigation, fertilizer and pesticide consumption were observed to be nullifying that negative impact of climate change by enhancing the overall production. However, the commercial crops were observed to be positively affected by the increasing temperature. The study suggested that although the agriculture sector is able to withstand the adverse impact of climate change till now, but in near future this situation can become reversed. This necessitates the implementation of appropriate adaptation and mitigation measures to deal with the problems of climate change and to ensure the food security and food safety along in long run.