Global climate change is a change in the long-term weather patterns that shapes the regions of the world. Climatic change can affect agriculture in several ways such as production of crops and so on. Climate change is influencing the fundamentals of agriculture through changes in precipitation patterns, temperature, intensifying heat waves, droughts, floods, pests, and diseases. Moreover, mustard is an annual, cool-season specialty cash crop that has been a short season crop and grown in rotation with small grains. In Pakistan after cotton, Mustard is the second most important source of oil in Pakistan. It is cultivated over an area of 307,000 hectares with an annual production of 233,000 tons and contributes about 17% to the domestic production of edible oil. Mustard along with four other closely related cultivated oilseed species viz.
Brassica rapa, Brassica napus, Brassica carinata, and Eruca sativa have become one of the most important sources of vegetable oil in the world. Further, mustard seed is a rich source of oil and protein. Seeds of mustard contain 46-48% oil and 43.6% protein. Besides oil usage, it is also used in industries, agricultural practices (oil cake manure), and as animal feed due to its high protein content. In addition, the mustard meal is an excellent feed for animals. Appropriate planting time of mustard (Brassica sp.) during winter determines the growth yield and quality of a particular cultivar. Since the shift of the winter period over the last few years driven by climate change, a transformation in mustard cultivation has also been observed.
Mustard crop is highly vulnerable, particularly in the semi-arid and arid regions of Pakistan. The climate is warming through the processes such as CO2 emission and changed patterns of temperature and precipitation resulting in heat and drought stresses, respectively. The effect of low temperature (frost) during the pudding and seed development stage in mustard causes freezing injury in seeds and a sizable reduction in seed yield.
Therefore, there are several reasons, which are responsible for the low yield of mustard. Firstly, farmers often cannot sow mustard due to soil conditions (available soil moisture) hence timely planting is hindered. Time line for mustard planting in Pakistan is very short varying from 20 September to 15 October. Late-planted mustard is exposed to high-temperature stress during the reproductive phase, forcing plants to mature quickly because of increased senescence, reducing the length of the seed-filling period, and lowering seed size and weight resulting in considerable yield loss.
Timely sowing enables the crop plants to complete both vegetative and reproductive phases. For example, Due to the uneven rainfall pattern observed in 2023, Farmers faced many challenges at the time of sowing like water logging which disturbed normal sowing time.
This factor contributed massively to the reduction of annual Mustard yield. Secondly, 30 to 50% of mustard flowers fail to develop into mature pods. This implies that the potential fruit or seed number is usually much more than the number actually produced by the plant community. Thirdly, Strong winds during mustard harvesting can cause the plants to sway and scatter the seeds, making it challenging to harvest efficiently.
It is best to choose a calm day for smoother harvesting. Simultaneously changes in precipitation patterns enhance the chance of crop failure and decrease crop yield, particularly in rain-fed areas. Fourthly, Humidity affects the mustard crop by influencing the rate of evaporation and transpiration.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Multan.
views expressed are writer’s own.
