Impact of Climate Change on Crops Adaptation and Strategies to Tackle Its Outcome: A Review

• Published in: Plants (Basel) Vol. 8; no. 2; p. 34
• Main Authors: Raza, Ali, Razzaq, Ali, Mehmood, Sundas Saher, Zou, Xiling, Zhang, Xuekun, Lv, Yan, Xu, Jinsong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 30.01.2019; MDPI
• Subjects: abiotic stress; Adaptation; adverse effects; Agricultural production; Agriculture; Annual rainfall; Biotechnology; biotic stress; breeding; Carbon dioxide; Climate change; Climate-smart agriculture; climatic factors; crop adaptation; Crop production; Crop resilience; Crops; Digital agriculture; Drought; ecological resilience; Ecosystem resilience; Environmental conditions; Environmental impact; Food; Food security; Genetic engineering; genome wide association studies (GWAS); Global climate; heat; Heat waves; hormone responses; marker-assisted selection (MSA); microorganisms; molecular breeding; ozone; Pests; physiological responses; Plant breeding; Plant growth; rain; Rainfall; Resilience; Review; Sea level; Stresses; temperature; Transgenic plants; Water shortages; weeds; physiological responses; crop adaptation; hormone responses; molecular breeding; genetic engineering; climate change; genome wide association studies (GWAS); marker-assisted selection (MSA)
• ISSN: 2223-7747; 2223-7747
• DOI: 10.3390/plants8020034

Agriculture and climate change are internally correlated with each other in various aspects, as climate change is the main cause of biotic and abiotic stresses, which have adverse effects on the agriculture of a region. The land and its agriculture are being affected by climate changes in different ways, e.g., variations in annual rainfall, average temperature, heat waves, modifications in weeds, pests or microbes, global change of atmospheric CO2 or ozone level, and fluctuations in sea level. The threat of varying global climate has greatly driven the attention of scientists, as these variations are imparting negative impact on global crop production and compromising food security worldwide. According to some predicted reports, agriculture is considered the most endangered activity adversely affected by climate changes. To date, food security and ecosystem resilience are the most concerning subjects worldwide. Climate-smart agriculture is the only way to lower the negative impact of climate variations on crop adaptation, before it might affect global crop production drastically. In this review paper, we summarize the causes of climate change, stresses produced due to climate change, impacts on crops, modern breeding technologies, and biotechnological strategies to cope with climate change, in order to develop climate resilient crops. Revolutions in genetic engineering techniques can also aid in overcoming food security issues against extreme environmental conditions, by producing transgenic plants.