Impact of Climate Variables on Paddy Production in Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The significant reduction in agricultural production in Sri Lanka, compounded by the rising prices of fuel and basin food items followed by agricultural food shortages in Afghanistan and increase in food consumption worldwide carry our global concern towards food security and sustainability mere self-sufficient in production. Agriculture is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Extreme climate happens like heavy rainfall, high temperature and drought making heavy losses in agriculture regionally and significantly damaging the harnessing of better crop yields. As a major staple food crop, Paddy is selected for examining the impact of climate variability on paddy crop yield and variance thereof in Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Season and Crop Reports published by the Department of Agriculture, Government of Tamil Nadu and NASA Power Data are the secondary data sources were used for the study. Just-Pope yield function was used to determine the influence of climate variables on mean crop yield and variance. The results indicate that yield of paddy increases from the increase in temperature, however, are negatively associated with precipitation intensity. The variability in the yield of paddy also increases with increase in rainfall. The study has suggested weather-based crop insurance policy and climate-resilient farming techniques to reduce the losses to the farmers.