Emerging Obstacles of Vegetable Production Due to Climate Change and Mitigation Strategies

Climate change is of pivotal concern of crop growers and researchers in today’s scenario. Vegetable crops are somewhat more prone to the vagaries of nature. The increasing global warming, changed precipitation patterns, excess amounts of UV radiation is causing menace to vegetable productivity through altered span and period of crop, reduced pollination and fertilization, thus reducing the yield and adverse effect on other physio-biochemical mechanisms, lowering the quality. The patterns of disease-pest infestation and severity has also been modified providing more threat to the crop. Developing climate resilient varieties by conventional breeding techniques or use of marker assisted breeding and development of transgenics are an important option for coping with the abiotic stresses. Besides, adoption of suitable cultural practices, diversified cropping systems, mulches, precision farming and organic farming may be the adaptation and mitigation strategies that may be adopted to combat climate change.