Prof. Parshant Bakshi, Reetika Sharma
As per the report of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), India will be the effloresce economy in the world even with a sluggish growth rate of 6.7% but it is stock-still tenacious by poverty and hunger. This is evident from Global Hunger Index during 2022, in which India ranks 107out of 121 qualifying countries. It can be attributed to the ever increasing population of the country, which has resulted in increasing demand for food and further aggravating the food security crisis in the country. Another problem of land fragmentation is a result of changing land use for developmental purposes there by leaving the farming household with marginal land to cultivate. These fragmented lands are not economically feasible to grow fruit crops.
Climate change is an enormous concern of the world. An increasing concentration of carbon dioxide, rising earth’s temperature, ozone depletion are among the major issues associated with climate changes which directly or indirectly cause negative impacts on quality attributes and nutritional quality of fresh fruits and might increase severe production problems. In temperate fruit crops, time change of different physiological activities i.e shifts in phenology is oversensitive to change in climate or likely to have baneful effects on endurance of species and thereby on biodiversity. Changes in phenology can affect reproduction because of discrepancy between plants and pollinators. The quantitative and qualitative attributes of temperate fruit crops can be directly and indirectly affected by exposure to high temperatures and elevated levels of carbon dioxide and ozone. Photosynthesis is directly affected by temperature, causing alteration in activity of antioxidants, firmness, flavonoid contents, sugars and organic acids and on the other side carbon dioxide concentration in atmosphere also rise persistently affected post-harvest quality of fruits. Ozone depletion can also results in the decline of photosynthetic rate, growth, biomass accumulation, increase in vitamin-C content and reduction in volatile esters emissions. It has also alters the pattern of blossoming, bearing and therefore, yield and quality of fruits continuously deteriorates under North Western Himalayan condition of India.
Commercially, winter chilling requirement is one of the major methods for successful cultivation of temperate fruit crops, which is specific for every tree cultivar. Insufficiency of chilling may cause abnormal pattern of bud-break in temperate fruit trees, which can substantially reduce yield and fruit quality. A radical change in climate action won’t save glaciers which results in continuously melting of ice cap in the Himalayan regions, reduces chilling requirements for the flowering of many temperate fruit crops like apple, cherry, pears etc. and also reducing the accumulation of heat shock proteins. In tropical fruit crops, the rind colour is the major problem. The warm temperatures impeded with the lack of chlorophyll as well as with the increase of carotenoids. Thus, fruit in the tropics remain pale and greenish; oranges and mandarins, in particular, do not attain their attractive rind colours. The declining of air and soil temperatures marks the onset of colour changes in subtropical regions, especially in autumn season. The high temperature and humidity result in tender, rapidly senescing fruit which has low storage potential and is highly susceptible to peel blemishes.
Climate Smart Horticulture is an integrated approach that help the people who manage horticultural systems respond effectively to climate change. Climate smart horticulture has helped in increasing the productivity and income of farmers and in nearing to the goal of food and nutritional security through adaptation and sustainable growing techniques. It has been estimated that by 2050 the population of world will be 9 billion and ever increasing need to raise the agricultural production by 70 % so as to meet the basic demands of food, feed, fuel and fiber. The use of techniques like yield monitoring in fruits and nuts, precision irrigation, robotics, wireless connectivity and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) helps in collecting the eco-physiological information that can be used in breeding programs to obtain improved cultivars, reduce stress in irrigation, tackle physically demanding tasks, analyzing data related to crops, soil, field, livestock and storage facilities, predictive modeling and planning and measuring plant canopy, height and structural parameters. A yield monitor by itself can provide useful information and enhance on-farm research. Yield data can be accumulated for a specific load or field, thereby facilitating the comparison of hybrids, varieties, or treatments within test plots.
Precision irrigation can improve horticultural sustainability in respect of better water use efficiency and minimize adverse environmental impact, thereby helping to manage the orchard variability of water in turn improving the productivity of horticultural crop. The economic benefit of precision irrigation lies in reducing the cost of inputs or improving the yield for the same input. Wireless connectivity or we say that wireless sensor networks can play vital role in adjusting and managing the water resources for irrigation, understanding the variable production factors in fruit crops, assess the optimum point for harvesting, estimating fertilizer requirements and to predict crop performance more accurately. Unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly named drones collect raw data and process it to provide information regarding vegetation indices like leaf area, phenology and yield, plant height and density, plant scouting, analysis the soil heath and also helps farmers to optimize the use of inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, water and pesticides more efficiently, allowing timely protection of crops from pests, saves time, reduces overall cost in farm production and secures better yield and quality fruit crops. Change of fruit crop and varieties which are able to withstand biotic and a-biotic stresses offer greater climate resilience. Minimizing impact of extreme weather event by modifying micro-climate both against heat and cold stress by adapting techniques like overhead irrigation, mid-canopy sprinkler, shade-net, reflecting materials, water channels, canopy management etc. helps in reducing the pest and diseases. Sound weather forecasting system is very important for adjusting field operation to minimize damage to the crops.
Protected cultivation provides modified micro-climate and crop is less exposed to weather extremities. The production of large scale quality planting material, high density planting in fruit crops like mango, guava, banana, citrus, apple and papaya have been developed by using dwarfing rootstock, inter-stocks and scion varieties for production of quality fruits and have great adaptation to climate change but also accumulates biomass and soil carbon per unit area. Climate change impacts farm production and food systems, and thus the approach to transforming horticultural systems to support global food security and poverty reduction.
Climate change introduces greater uncertainty and risk among farmers and policymakers, but need not lead to analysis. An integrated, evidence based and transformative approach to addressing food and climate security at all levels requires coordinated actions from the global to local levels, from research to policies and investments, and across private, public and civil society sectors to achieve the scale and rate of change required. With the right practices, policies and investments, the horticulture sector can move to Climate smart horticulture pathways, resulting in decreased food insecurity and poverty in the short term while contributing to reducing climate change as a threat to food security over the longer term. The implementation of horticultural policies can be drastically improved to support the farming community and thereby providing livelihood, increasing their incomes and avoid negative social and cultural impacts, such as loss of land tenure and forced migration.
(The authors are Head, and Ph.D Scholar, Division of Fruit Science, SKUAST-Jammu).