Climate change: Its drivers and their effects on crops

Climate change is one of the most important environmental challenges. The Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that the increases in the frequency and magnitude of warm daily temperature extremes and decreases in cold extremes will occur during the 21^st century on a global scale. The levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, etc. are currently at their peak level and as compared to early 1900’s they have increased by more than 18–40%. These increases have resulted in warming of the earth-atmosphere system and subsequently this has led to changes in the hydrological cycle at global level. India is primarily an agriculture based economy and nearly 50% of the people earn their livelihood from agriculture sector. Since the production of agricultural crops is highly vulnerable to climate change so these changes require the immediate attention of the scientists and policy makers.