Main Navigation

• Home

• Crop Research

• Varieties

• Supply Chain

• Markets

• Education

• Exports

• Food & Nutrition

• Environment

• Industrial

Submenu

Crop Research

Sunflowers and climate change

Sunflowers and climate change

Summary

Global temperatures have been rising over the past 25 years by approximately 0.2°C per decade and this has been attributed to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The main sources of these gases and aerosols are burning of fossil fuels for energy supply, transport and industry, with an increasing amount coming from residential and commercial, forestry and agriculture. Central England temperatures have seen a 1ºC rise during the twentieth century, whilst the occurrence of hot summer days (>25ºC) almost doubled during the first half of the 20th century.

The UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) was set up by Defra in 1997 to provide a research framework for the integrated assessment of climate change impacts in the UK. An updated set of climate change scenarios for the UK were produced in 2002 and it is these that have been used in this report.

The principle factor determining the rate of physiological development in sunflower is the accumulated air temperature (mean daily air temperature over a 6°C). The projections from UKCIP02 data indicate that the area suitable for sunflower production will increase to approximately 79% of the land area of England by 2050. There will be a substantial increase in the number of varieties that will be suitable for use in the UK.

Rainfall levels will decrease but this will suit the drought tolerant nature of sunflowers. Diseases
currently experienced such as sclerotinia and verticillium wilt may become more important and botrytis less important in future. Phomopsis and phoma are also likely to become more prevalent.

Click here for the full 16 page report: Sunflowers and climate change   (1640kb)