Which challenges pose climate change for crops?

Abstract

Agriculture contributes to and is affected by climate change. Relevant extreme weather events for agriculture were examined in the framework of a study for the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Gömann et al., 2015). Analyses of weather station data and results of climate model show i.a. an increase of days with extreme heat which are expected to become more frequent in the future. An increase of days without precipitation in March and April as well as an increase of days with extreme drought in summer were observed. The latter are expected to increase in the future. Increasing heat and drought adversely affect in particular growth and crop harvest of arable cultures e.g. winter wheat.