Climate Change Impact on Vegetable Crops and Potential for Adaptation: A Review

Climate change is emerging as one of the major constraints for global food security and will become more prevalent in the coming years. Agriculture is one of the leading sectors to be affected by climate change. This review is concerned with climate change impacts on the production and quality of vegetables and the crucial need for adaptation. Fluctuations in daily mean, minimum and maximum temperature is the primary effect of climate change that unfavorably affects vegetable production since many plant physiological, biochemical and metabolic activities are temperature-dependent. Case studies concerning the effect of elevated temperature on major vegetable crops production were discussed. Increased CO₂ in atmosphere can cause direct effect on growth and development of vegetable plants. Evidence has shown that higher growth rates observed for plants grown under high CO₂ concentrations may result in denser canopies with higher humidity that favor pathogens. It is well documented that the rise in temperature adversely affects the activity of pollinating agents and hence lower seed yield. Climate changes can potentially cause postharvest quality alterations in vegetable crops on both perceived and nutritional quality. Climate change could improve some quality attributes resulting in the improvement of some nutritional traits however, negative effects could be observed on product appearance. In addition, climate change variables may have indirect effects through the incidence of diseases and insect pests. Potential impacts of climate change on agricultural sector will necessitate the need for adaption and mitigation of the adverse effects on agricultural productivity, and particularly on vegetable crops yield and quality. Means for adaption and mitigation may include improving vegetable production systems, better exploitation of biodiversity, applying biotechnology and genomic approaches, genetically engineering different stress tolerance and ultimately develop climate-resilient vegetables. A holistic approach is essential to overcome climate change impact on vegetable crops rather than a single approach