Climate Change and Plantations in the Humid Tropics

Weather and climate play a critical role in the production of plantation crops. While climate determines the suitability of a particular crop in a specific region, weather determines the yield attributes of the crop. The impacts of global warming and climate change on plantation crops are evident in the form of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, heat waves, cold waves, and strong cyclonic winds. The frequency of these events is likely to increase in the coming decades, as evidenced by the years 1998, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2015. The economic viability of plantations in the future is at risk due to the increased variability of the climate. The decline in monsoon rainfall and the number of rainy days, the increase in day and night maximum and minimum ambient air temperatures, the decline in groundwater table and wetland area, the decline in surface water resources, the increase in forest fires and the decline in forest area, the increase in landslides during both monsoon seasons, the indiscriminate sand mining from river beds, and the unscientific land filling are significant climate change-related issues in the Humid Tropics.