Cropping Patterns for Phenology Stability and Resource Conservation Under Extreme Climates

Aqeel Ahmad^1,2*Iqra Shahzadi³Qurban Ali⁴Muhammad Umer⁵Nasim Ahmad Yasin⁶Waheed Akram⁶Tingquan Wu⁷Waheed Ullah Khan⁶Anis Ali⁸

• ¹University of Florida, Gainesville, United States
• ²Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
• ³Central South University, Changsha, China
• ⁴United Arab Emirates University Department of Biology, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
• ⁵Hainan University, Haikou, China
• ⁶University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
• ⁷Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou, China
• ⁸University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan

CONTEXT Cultivation pattern is the foundation stone of agriculture policy, enabling farmers to perform various farming operations efficiently. In the meantime, with an elevating frequency of extreme climate events, it is imperative to devise low-cost strategies to anticipate disastrous climates and achieve regional food security even in the regions facing typhoons, floods, and extreme temperatures. OBJECTIVE The study was primarily aimed to evaluate the crop cultivation patterns, focusing on their intrinsic climate mitigation potential and phenological stability to secure sufficient food. METHODS Overall, the study was performed in three phases, (i) crop type evaluation, (ii) cultivation pattern analysis, and (iii) cropping area analysis. In the first phase, the study used the climate data of 1979-2020 with reference to seven crop types (i.e., cereals, oilseed, vegetables, beans, peas, nuts, and tubers) and evaluated yield reductions and phenological shifts. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The results showed that tubers and nuts were the most resilient crops to extreme environmental events. Whereas cereals (conventional staple crops) and oilseed (the essential food crops) were most vulnerable to extreme climate events. Time-course phenological stability was higher in nuts and tubers, which possessed elevated resistance against phenological shifts. In the second phase, intercropping was highlighted as a better cultivation pattern; however, the recommended cultivation pattern was agroforestry due to its significant advantages over alley cropping, forest farming and windbreaks. The third phase recommended incorporating windbreak plants in the perpendicular single-row formation with an inter-row distance of 20 r (r - horizontal radius of the tree canopy). SIGNIFICANCE Overall, the study aligns the fundamental aspects of agroecology with redesigning crop cultivation policies and has global implications in the agricultural systems to mitigate extreme environments and ensure food security.