Review on Crop Diversity for Climate Change Adaptation

Abstract

Climate change is real. Crop failure that declines productivity is also real. Extreme climatic condition that our farmers are facing is causing a drought, pests and other plant diseases. Ethiopian farmers are seriously vulnerable to the climate extremes. Their rain fall dependent agriculture left them in the situation under production loss.

In order to cope up with this harsh climate conditions it sounds great to change farming system. Given climate change and its adverse consequences are common; the farmers’ capacity to adapt to the already existing climate extremes should be enhanced.Increasing crop diversity is one of the important ways of adapting to climate change. It is all about diversifying a type of crops in the farm. Different crops have different response to the climatic shocks, pests, diseases and other enemies. Drought resistant crops are those crops with high tolerance to the drought. Those crops save the household of poor farmers who are living in the subsistence life. Enset is an important drought tolerant endemic crop to Ethiopia. This golden crop is limited to southern part of Ethiopia and not widely distributed even inside the country. If experts of plant are engaged in the researches associated with this crop and its distribution throughout the country, it grants bulk loaves to those households under hunger due to climate change. Sorghum is another drought resistant crop in Ethiopia. Though it is already at the hand of the farmers, its improved variety has to be further introduced to the farmers in order to insure household’s food security. Sweet potato is also invaluable crop in climate change adaptation. Its high productivity and great nutritional value support farmers to survive under climate change. Finally, I believe that, the combination of these and others important crops in the farm can help to adapt to the climate change. The diverse the crops, the less will be the production loss due to climate change

Keywords: climate change, crop diversity, climate change adaptation