Resource detail

Climate change will bring major changes in Karnataka’s agriculture landscape by 2035 with a study flagging drop in the yield of major crops such as ragi, rice, groundnut, redgram, soybean while some crops like cotton and sugarcane will see an increase in yield, thereby increasing the risk of glut in market. Macro studies have already indicated that a temperature rise of 2 to 3.5 degrees Celsius will lead to up to 25% loss in net agriculture revenue. However, The vulnerability assessment by Mr H S Shivaramu, former head of Agrometeorology section in University of Agricultural Sciences-Bengaluru, used crop simulation models to arrive at scenarios specific to Karnataka. The overall productivity of crops during 2035 showed a 5.6% decline in productivity of rice compared to the existing yield. Other crops fared worse with productivity loss of sorghum put at 20.3%, soybean 28.9%, redgram 19.2%, ragi 12% and groundnut 9.6%.