Impact of Climate Change on Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Production and Adaptation strategies: A Review

Abstract

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is considered as the high potential food security crop and a major instrument for poverty alleviation in Ethiopia.  However, it is most vulnerable to climate change due to its exact climatic requirement for various physiological processes. There are many indicators of environmental stresses including climate change, especially global warming, are severely affecting potato growth and productivity worldwide.  The changing climate will affect the potato production adversely due to drought ,salinity,frost,flooding, erratic unseasonal rains ,surface temperature, increase in CO₂ fertilization, but decreases after some extent. Besides, anthropogenic activities such as CO₂ may increase crop yields due to increased CO₂, CH₄ and CFC’s are contributing to the global warming.  Under changing climatic situations crop failures, longer growing season, shortage of yields, reduction in quality, influence the pest and disease occurrences, host-pathogen interactions, distribution, and ecology of insects, there by becoming major setback to potato cultivation.  Therefore, adaptation strategies needed such as cropping systems and other inputs, shifting growing areas and planting date, improving water management and breeding new tolerant potato varieties. This paper reviews verified that recent impact of climate change in potato production and adaptation strategies.

Keywords: Adaptation strategies, Climate change, Drought, Global warming

DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/9-9-07

Publication date:May 31^st 2019