Climate change impacts on crop production in Turkey

Abstract

Global warming of concern is widely recognized as a main environmental issue by scientific community and the predictions are claimed that total increase in temperature will be 3.2˚C at the end of the present century. Countries across the globe are doing their own action plan to adapt and mitigate climate change taking into account their domestic capabilities. Turkey has been also started to face significant consequences of climate change and implanted her own actions plans. Sustainable agricultural production and food security is one of the major challenges. However, assessment of effects of climate changes on agriculture is usually concerned in a general overview and impacts of the change on particular products are missing for Turkey. Wheat, barley, maize, sunflower and cotton are the largest field crops grown in Turkey. This paper focuses on complex effects of global climate change on these main field crops in Turkey considering physiological functions to address crop development, yield and production.