Introduction
San Diego is an economic farmland in California, USA which contributes $ 5.1 billion annually to the economy. San Diego has a Mediterranean climate which is very ideal for growing crops and rearing livestock. The farm land in San Diego is divided into small holdings which are dwelled by more than 2.6 million people. San Diego is very important in terms of agriculture production and therefore to manage the produce from this area, San Diego County Farm Bureau has been established and is operational since 1913. This farm bureau which is a non profit organization, is working to help the agricultural communities of the area. The farm bureau works to ensure that the interest of the farmers are promoted at different occasions, to solve various agricultural problems, to make crop production more sustainable in the long run and to provide an efficient marketplace for trading of farmer’s agricultural produce.[1]
Avocado is dark green pear shaped fruit with creamy flesh. San Diego is a leading producer of avocado nationally. The value of avocado produced in San Diego in 2007 is $127,099,496. The avocado is a valuable cash crop of San Diego. USA is third in the world production of avocado, after Mexico and Indonesia. The statistics shows that 95% of avocado production in US comes from California in which San Diego is a major contributor to California’s production with 40% share.[2]
Climatic Conditions Suitable for Avocado
Avocado grows mainly in areas with tropical, sub tropical and temperate climatic conditions. These climatic conditions are frost free with mild temperatures and humid which is very suitable for avocado production. Moreover there should be little wind to ensure high yield. The windy conditions are adverse for avocado production as it reduces humidity and slows the pollination process. The other factor which causes reduction in yield is salinity in irrigation water. San Diego is particularly facing the water shortage problem and farmers have to pay high price to get the irrigation water. This raises the cost to the farmers which results in increase in fruit prices.[3]
What is Global Warming
Global warming is a long term phenomena in which earth’s average temperature continually increases. Thus global warming leads to gradual climatic changes which subsequently affect wildlife and plants as well as human beings. Global warming, nowadays, is a very popular issue at debate and it is mostly caused by unchecked and exploitative human actions. We have seen drastic industrialization and mechanization since last century which mainly use fossil fuels for its operations. The burning of fossil fuels produces greenhouse gases which gets trapped into the earth’s atmosphere and raises the temperature by absorbing heat.
The global warming causes variation in local temperature, average annual rainfall, sea level, availability of fresh irrigation water and soil composure. These variations have direct impact on agricultural production and the crop yield. Adverse impacts on agriculture and decreasing crop yield will cause severe problems of food supply and food security. Food supply is a term used for amount of food produced while food security means the availability or distribution of food among people. The decrease in yield will cause decrease in food production which will result in inequitable and irrational supply of food among people of different nations. The consequence is that there will be widespread poverty, with people mainly dieing of malnutrition. The current global food inflation is an apparent consequence of adverse climatic conditions caused by global warming which disrupts the normal agricultural production.[4]
Many attempts have been made by humans to somehow increase the crop yield. One of them is the use of technology in agriculture. However technological advancements can not counter the problems to a greater degree because it does not reduces the adverse impacts of global warming which is the major problem. The food production is highly dependent on right time and amount of rainfall, wind pressure, humidity and solar radiation. Until and unless atmospheric conditions are not improved, the technological advancements will not be much effective.
Fighting and reducing the global warming is not an easy task and the results cannot be achieved overnight. It will require years to gradually alter the human lifestyle in a more environmentally friendly manner. The process of industrialization and development cannot be stopped because it provides high standard of living to all. But this industrialization is useless if it is done at the cost of environmental degradation. Nothing is more important than a sustainable environment for our future generation. However, we have to get aware of the perils of global warming and recently we have seen many international pacts and agreements to reduce the green house emission. Therefore we can have a solution if we agree on sustainable developmental strategies which are in alignment with the environmental concerns.[5]
Having an in depth understanding of global warming, we now proceed to our particular case of avocado production in San Diego. Although the aforementioned effects of global warming on crop yield and food production also apply to avocado production but there are some specific issues which are discussed below.
The Effect of Global Warming on San Diego’s Avocado Crops
The research study reveals that the increase in temperature of California will result in reduction of avocado yield by as high as 40%. Worldwide, there is a trend of shifting cultivation where farmers move to new land for cultivation when his previous area gets infertile for production. However in case of avocado this is very difficult if not impossible. The farmers, who have looked after the fruit producing trees for more than ten years, cannot one day abandon it in order to move to a new area where climatic conditions are more favorable. It is very unfavorable for farmers to plant new trees elsewhere and wait for it to get mature to be able to give fruits. This process is very tedious and therefore avocado farmers are bound to their native farmlands.[6]
The adverse climatic change is also resulting in less rainfall and drought and dry conditions in San Diego, with the consequence that it has to import irrigation water from the external sources. Recently, the high regulation on imported sources of water, to ration its use during this time of scarcity, is resulting in increased prices of irrigation water. The farmers have to pay more than $600/acre. This high cost is reflected in increase of fruit prices to consumers. As a result, the consumers are not willing to purchase at such a high price which is resulting in difficulties for many farmers, forcing some of them to abandon faming altogether.[7]
Global warming also causes mountain glaciers to melt faster and therefore much of fresh water is lost into sea. Moreover California does not have enough storage capacity and faster melting glaciers pose challenge to the irrigation system. Fruit such as avocado is water intensive and it is reported that many growers in San Diego is cutting down avocado trees to reduce their demand of water.[8]
The major cause of global warming is the excess concentration of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere. This high concentration also leads to the danger of range and forest fires. Last year, we experienced a disastrous firestorm in California which also engulfed the area of San Diego. Many relief work and programs are going on along with the insurance and loan assistance to the farmers. The firestorm is disastrous in the sense that it harms the natural resources of the areas along with the livestock, crops and human beings. It destroys the natural non irrigated grazing land for the animals. The trees are lost which further causes the problems of soil erosion and land infertility. Thus the relief programs are established particularly for the purpose of reducing the after effects of a natural disaster such as to reduce land slides, restore lost trees and land fertility, repair the irrigation system and compensate the farmers for lost livestock and crops.[9]
Thus this firestorm will have a major impact on the future of avocado production as many of its trees were lost in firestorm which may result in supply shortages. Furthermore it will take three to four years to have new avocado trees which imply that in the short term the avocado supplies cannot be improved. This will leave a negative effect on many avocado growers for they are losing their potential sales.
The climatic change can also have negative effects on avocado’s quality and size in which case its marketability will decrease. Moreover longer summers are favorable breeding period for different species of insects and pest. Apart from the danger that pest will destroy the fruit; the increase use of pesticides will itself result in contamination of fruits with harmful chemicals. Thus the issue of reduced fruit quality and nutritional level is of major concern.
Work Cited
Cline, W. R. Global Warming and Agriculture: Impact Estimates by Country. Peterson Institute, 2007
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. (2006) “Rise in California Temperatures Likely To Affect Crops.” ScienceDaily 16 November 2008 <http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2006/12/061206095300.htm>
San Diego County Farm Bureau. (2008). Nov 16, 2008. http://www.sdfarmbureau.org/index.php
[1] San Diego County Farm Bureau. (2008). Nov 16, 2008. http://www.sdfarmbureau.org/index.php
[2] San Diego County Farm Bureau. (2008). Nov 16, 2008. http://www.sdfarmbureau.org/index.php
[3] San Diego County Farm Bureau. (2008). Nov 16, 2008. http://www.sdfarmbureau.org/index.php
[4] Cline, W. R. Global Warming and Agriculture: Impact Estimates by Country. Peterson Institute, 2007, pp 110-130.
[5] Cline, W. R. Global Warming and Agriculture: Impact Estimates by Country. Peterson Institute, 2007, pp 250-260.
[6] Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. (2006) “Rise in California Temperatures Likely To Affect Crops.” ScienceDaily. 16 November 2008 <http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2006/12/061206095300.htm>
[7] San Diego County Farm Bureau. (2008). Nov 16, 2008. http://www.sdfarmbureau.org/index.php
[8] Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. (2006) “Rise in California Temperatures Likely To Affect Crops.” ScienceDaily. 16 November 2008 <http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2006/12/061206095300.htm>
[9] Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. (2006) “Rise in California Temperatures Likely To Affect Crops.” ScienceDaily. 16 November 2008 <http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2006/12/061206095300.htm>
