While humans bask in the gloriously hot summer days, spare a thought for plants and crops. Even though we all know that sunlight is good for crops, too much of it may be harmful, therefore it is crucial to keep crops in mind when it comes to the weather.
Agronomist Wafiq Essop shares recommendations to safeguard your crops from excessive heat this summer.
Plants and crops have been around for centuries and one thing we can be certain of is that they are resistant and quite adaptable. But when crops are vulnerable and the breed isn’t correctly nurtured to survive within the environment, a natural occurrence of too much heat can have quite the effect on crops, says Essop.
“Lots of plants have quite a lot of resistance when it comes to heat. Plants have survived when there weren’t always sufficient nutrients and when the climatic conditions weren’t always ideal. With that being said, lots of plants have quite a decent resistance to heat and if you breed them correctly, they can survive,” he explains.
Understanding how damaging heat can be on crops
Too much heat, however, can be quite damaging to crops. Essop explains that a farmer can lose 25% of yield per day due to excessive heat on plants.
“You can have a reduction of at least a quarter of your yield if heatwave conditions are experienced for a day. It is not like hail or flooding that hits you once. It can have a substantial amount of damage really quickly.”
He cautions farmers to look out for sunburn too, which tends to have an effect on the overall quality of fruit.
“Diseases aren’t that much of an issue when it comes to heatwaves, it is more the stress and panic on the plant.”
When the heatwave occurs later during the day, it won’t cause a lot of damage. It’s when it starts early in the morning when farmers should prepare for damage.
Methods to protect crops
According to Essop, it is important to consider the genetics of the plant as well as the overall health of the soil. A pest and disease management programme should be well underway at this point in time.
“These are all the general things that need to be in place before you start and of course, you need to have sufficient financing,” he adds.
Other methods such as water catchments or irrigation systems should also be in place to prepare for heatwaves.
Intercropping benefits
“If you have sufficient water and healthy soil, it will feed back into the crops and this is what they have been doing for many years. They are also doing something called intercropping.”
Intercropping is planting various crops and through this process, the crops synergistically help one another. Due to the microbiomes, it can hold onto water and release it when it is needed. Through the process of evolution, a lot of plants either die or adapt to the changes that occur in the environment going forward.
“So you have a very robust system which feeds back into plant systems and this is one of the ancient methods that are used to limit heat stress,” he says.
Essop further explains with modern culture and from a capitalist perspective, it makes more sense as people are financially able to use a system such as intercropping. On the other hand, there can be a financial strain on farmers that don’t have the means to be able to use a farming system such as intercropping.
Technology and climate change
Essop advises farmers to use modern-day technology to be able to make the process smoother. The reality is that artificial intelligence (AI) is knocking at the door of farmers and it should be highly considered to make farming life easier, Essop recommends.
“With AI right now, you can actually detect the general health of crops based on the colour that is bouncing off the leaves. That is very beneficial to find out where are the areas that are not being fertilised and not being irrigated correctly, or where crops are being over irrigated.”
Essop believes that due to weather systems changing due to climate change, more heatwaves will occur more often. However, he admits that for the longest time, heatwaves have occurred throughout history and farmers should always be prepared.
“Farmers should understand that changes are happening now. There is nothing they can do about the changes happening except prepare accordingly,” he says.
Top five tips that will help farmers protect crops during heatwaves:
- Use shade cloth (if your finances allow).
- Making sure you have sufficient water.
- Use mulch to keep the soil cool.
- The soil food web needs to be healthy.
- A good compost which you can incorporate with animals that are part of your farming system.
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