How heatwaves affect agriculture

By F.H. Mughal

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Agricultural activity is dependent on climate, weather, and water availability. Weather- and climate-related disasters adversely affect agricultural production.

The impact of a heatwave on agriculture can be direct (physical damage to crops, animals and trees caused by the extreme hydro-meteorological events), or indirect (loss of potential production owing to disturbed flow of goods and services, lost production capacities, and increased costs of production).

This impact can be tangible (one that can be easily measured in monetary terms) or intangible (anxiety or fear of future natural disasters, inconvenience, disruption, and stress-induced ill health).

Heatwave impacts crop growth and development at different levels like soil moisture uptake, root and shoot growth, photosynthesis, respiration, plant water uptake and final yield. Heatwave competes for soil moisture by hastened evaporation, leaving almost no moisture for uptake by plants. Heatwave also causes an overall environmental degradation, which is a major factor contributing to the vulnerability of agriculture, forestry and rangelands to heatwaves.

Quite often, poor people work on the agricultural lands. These under-nutritioned and weak poor people, when exposed to extreme heat, are simply knocked down health-wise. This is another factor that adversely affects agricultural problem.

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