Trends and consequences of climatic factors on vegetables production in Navsari district, Gujarat

Extreme climatic conditions were observed during the last two decades which causes a huge economic loss to all the sectors. As agriculture totally depends on climatic condition, it is adversely affected by extreme climatic conditions. Vegetables are the essential part of our daily diet. The change in different climatic factors ultimately affects the production and productivity of various crops including vegetables. The present investigation focuses on trends and consequences of climatic factors on vegetable production especially in Navsari district of Gujarat state. For this purpose the data related to rainfall, maximum and minimum temperature of Navsari district was collected from Department of Agril. Meteorology, NAU, Navsari whereas the data on production and productivity of major vegetable crops collected from official website of Director of Horticulture, GoG for the period from 2005 to 2022. To study the trend in climatic factors, Mann Kendall Test and Sen’s slope were used. To estimate the trend in production and productivity of major vegetables simple linear regression was used. To study the relationship between the different climatic factors and production and productivity of vegetable crops, Karl Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient was estimated. The results of MK test and Sen’s slope showed negative trend in pre monsoon, monsoon and annual rainfall, during the study period in Navsari district. The positive trend observed in maximum temperature whereas negative trend observed in minimum temperature during all the season and throughout the year. The positive trend observed in production and productivity of Brinjal, Cabbage, Okra and all vegetables except Tomato which recorded negative trend in production and positive trend in productivity in Navsari district over a period of time. Production of all vegetable showed negative relationship with rainfall, minimum and maximum temperature during all the seasons and throughout the year. Production of Brinjal, Cabbage and Okra showed positive relationship with maximum temperature and negative relationship with minimum temperature annually and in all seasons during study period. Annual and monsoon rainfall shoed negative relationship with productivity of all the vegetable crops under study. Productivity of Brinjal, Cabbage, Okra and all vegetables showed positive relationship with maximum temperature and negative relationship with minimum temperature annually and in all seasons during study period.