Scholarly record

EVALUATION OF RISKS IN AGRICULTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Assist. prof. Sandija Zeverte-Rivza, Assist. prof. Dina Popluga, Assist. prof. Laima Berzina

Abstract

Over the past decade, the widespread concern about the staggering effects of climate change, particularly in the agricultural sector, has become very serious. It has been agreed that the inter-annual, monthly and daily distribution of climate variables such as temperature, radiation, precipitation, water vapour pressure in the air and wind speed affects a number of physical, chemical and biological processes that drive the productivity of agriculture. Thus, understanding the possible consequences of climate change in agriculture matters for designing adaptation policies intending to minimise negative consequences and maximise positive effects. This research study aims to identify and evaluate risks in agriculture in the context of climate change. The results of this research study reflects the forecasts of the changing climate and the following effects to agriculture and summarises the political framework of assessing and mitigating climate change and the risks related to it. The paper also describes the impact of agriculture on the national economy and characterises social and economic values of this sector. Overall, the evaluation shows that agriculture is affected by a set of risks that may not be very high individually, but can cause serious damage to crop yields if a certain combination of the risks occurs.

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