A Regional Analysis of Climate Change Impacts on Canadian Agriculture

Weber, Marian; Hauer, Grant

doi:10.2307/3552453

Cited by 33 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…While drier weather is projected to have the greatest impact on the Canadian prairies, in terms of expanding the growing season and the production of higher value crops such as soybeans (Weber and Hauer 2003), the major climate change challenges will be changes in water availability in the summer season, greater frequencies of droughts, and developing crop adaptation strategies (Sauchyn and Kulshreshtha 2008).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing Temperature and Precipitation Influences on Yield Distributions of Canola and Spring Wheat in Saskatchewan

Meng

Carew

Florkowski

et al. 2017

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

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The IPCC indicates that global mean temperature increases of 28C or more above preindustrial levels negatively affect such crops as wheat. Canadian climate model projections show warmer temperatures and variable rainfall will likely affect Saskatchewan's canola and spring wheat production. Drier weather will have the greatest impact. The major climate change challenges will be summer water availability, greater drought frequencies, and crop adaptation. This study investigates the impact of precipitation and temperature changes on canola and spring wheat yield distributions using Environment Canada weather data and Statistics Canada crop yield and planted area for 20 crop districts over the 1987-2010 period. The moment-based methods (full-and partial-moment-based approaches) are employed to characterize and estimate asymmetric relationships between climate variables and the higher-order moments of crop yields. A stochastic production function and the focus on crop yield's elasticity imply choosing the natural logarithm function as the mean function transformation prior to higher-moment function estimation. Results show that average crop yields are positively associated with the growing season degree-days and pregrowing season precipitation, while they are negatively affected by extremely high temperatures in the growing season. The climate measures have asymmetric effects on the higher moments of crop yield distribution along with stronger effects of changing temperatures than precipitation on yield distribution. Higher temperatures tend to decrease wheat yields, confirming earlier Saskatchewan studies. This study finds pregrowing season precipitation and precipitation in the early plant growth stages particularly relevant in providing opportunities to develop new crop varieties and agronomic practices to mitigate climate changes.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing Temperature and Precipitation Influences on Yield Distributions of Canola and Spring Wheat in Saskatchewan

Meng

Carew

Florkowski

et al. 2017

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

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“…Though climate change may be beneficial for agriculture in the region (especially for corn and soybean; see e.g. Weber et al, 2003 and the literature cited), it will require rural municipalities, within their area of jurisdiction, to become more involved with the diffuse polluting impacts of changing agricultural activity through, for example, reductions in nutrient loading (e.g. with the suggested phosphorus credit system), development of vegetated riparian zones, and wetland protection and creation.…”

Section: Impact Of Climate Scenarios On Groundwater Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the majority of the recent literature indicates that climate change is rather favorable to North-American agriculture (e.g. Weber et al, 2003 and the literature cited; Reilly et al, 2003;Mendelsohn, 2001). These are no excuse for policy inaction, however.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutional Adaptation of Water Resource Infrastructures to Climate Change in Eastern Ontario

2006

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Abstract. Institutional barriers and bridges to local climate change impacts adaptation affecting small rural municipalities and Conservation Authorities (CAs are watershed agencies) in Eastern Ontario (Canada) are examined, and elements of a community-based adaptation strategy related to water infrastructures are proposed as a case-study in community adaptation to climate change. No general water scarcity is expected for the region even under unusually dry weather scenarios. Localized quantity and quality problems are likely to occur especially in groundwater recharge areas. Some existing institutions can be relied on by municipalities to build an effective adaptation strategy based on a watershed/region perspective, on their credibility, and on their expertise. Windows of opportunity or framing issues are offered at the provincial level, the most relevant one in a federal state, by municipal emergency plan requirements and pending watershed source water protection legislation. Voluntary and soon to be mandated climate change mitigation programs at the federal level are other ones.

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“…Options from this perspective tend to be hypothetical. Estimates focusing on temperature increases and assuming adaptations project positive outcomes for Canadian agriculture, suggesting that on balance, as long as producers make the necessary changes, the agri-food sector will see a net benefit from climate change (Mendelssohn et al, 1994;Weber and Hauser, 2003).…”

Section: Agricultural Adaptation To Climate Risksmentioning

confidence: 99%