Predicted climate variability in future years is expected to have both positive and negative impacts on global agriculture. Due to frequently harsh climatic conditions, crops grown in semiarid dryland cropping regions must tolerate a myriad of abiotic stresses.
A symposium sponsored by the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA), titled “Global Semiarid Cropping Systems—Adaptation to Climate Variability” is planned during the Resilience Emerging from Scarcity and Abundance ASA/CSSA/SSSA International annual meeting in Phoenix, will address this important topic. The symposium will be held Nov. 7 at 8:30 a.m.
“Semiarid climates characterize a large but discontiguous fraction of the western half of the U.S.,” says Eugene Takle, director of the climate science program at Iowa State University. “For these reasons, strategies for adapting to climate change will be highly location-dependent, complex and subject to modification over time.”
David Nielsen of USDA-ARS will present potential management alternatives that may be useful in improving or maintaining cropping system sustainability in this region as weather patterns change, including using flexible and/or opportunity cropping in conjunction with forages.
Chandrashekhar Biradar, with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, will discuss agro-ecosystems in the Middle East and Africa.
Hans J. Braun of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center will discuss wheat production in Mexico.
Click here for more information about the Resilience Emerging from Scarcity and Abundance 2016 meeting. Information about the “Global Semiarid Cropping Systems–Adaptation to Climate Variability” symposium can be found here. To get in contact with one of the participating scientists, contact Susan V. Fisk at (608) 273-8091 or sfisk@sciencesocieties.org.