Plantation crops: climatic risks and adaptation strategies

Beyond its direct effects on weather, climate change will increase both abiotic stresses, such as drought, high temperature, flooding and biotic stresses such as pest and disease pressures on agriculture systems. Plantation crops mainly coconut, rubber, tea, coffee, oil palm, arecanut, cashew, cocoa grown in ecologically sensitive areas like coastal belts, hilly areas and areas with high rainfall and humidity, are under the threat of climate change. The trend in temperature has been increasing while rainfall decreasing significantly since 1980s in tune with the global warming especially across the high ranges, followed by the low lands where predominantly plantation crops are grown. It is observed that drought and high temperature severely limit the yield in plantation crops, yet the interactions among different types of stresses is largely unknown. New crop varieties, cropping systems and agricultural management strategies are needed to provide options to farmers to counterweight these changes. In this chapter the response and adaptive strategies of coconut are discussed with respect to climatic change variable CO2 and its associated consequences like drought and high temperature.