Climate Change and Agriculture Productivity

The issues of climate change gained its momentum only in the latter part of the twentieth century, when the world started witnessing global warming. Though all the consequences of such a change are yet to be fully understood, this study however concentrates only on agriculture, by studying the case of maize (a sensitive crop). In India, agriculture mostly depends on the mercy of monsoons and the environment. Several factors such as average increase in temperature, change in rainfall amounts and patterns,etc., affects the crop, soil, livestock and pests. With the help of meteorological and agricultural data the study tries to give the aggregate picture of the change in climate in the past five decades in India and suggests that there exists a strong long-run relationship, between climate change and yield of Maize. Therefore, further in-depth analysis is required and a multivariate framework is needed for a much better understanding of the issue at hand. The need for similar analysis for other crops is also very urgent to initiate a comprehensive public policy to tackle the impact of climate change in food production in India.