Krishna Prasad Sapkota¹*, Padma Nath Atreya² and Umanath Sharma^3
1FORWARD Nepal/Feed the Future Horticulture Innovation Lab, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal
²Temperate Horticulture Development Center, Marpha, Mustang, Nepal
³Agriculture and Forestry University, Center for Biotechnology, Chitwan, Nepal
*Corresponding author's email: ekrishnasapkota@gmail.com *ORCID iD: 0009-0009-2366-4989

Abstract

Climate change, the global phenomenon, have both positive and negative effects in growth and development of fruits and vegetables through rise and fall in temperature, shifting of climatic zone, disease/pest outbreak etc. This review paper aim to describe the recent climate change pattern and its impact on fruits and vegetables production in Nepal. Due to climatic zone shifting, tropical fruits and vegetables grown in higher altitudes attribute significant effects on various growth stages as delayed maturity, delayed ripening; poor quality fruit, poor color development, sunburn of fruit, poor flower emergence, improper pollination etc. Researches reveal that with the exposure to extreme temperatures, insects as adaptive mechanism may produce heat shock proteins, cryoprotectants and osmolyte compounds within their bodies to survive extreme condition. Higher temperature has been reported to induce early flowering resulting in poor fruit-set because of abnormalities arising from prevailing low night temperatures. In vegetables, tomato plants reported to have increased incidence of various diseases such as late blight, leaf curl and black spot with sudden onset of climatic fluctuations. Hence, the review suggests that organizations related to fruit and vegetables research, education and development in Nepal have to get organized and strive hard to bring new genetic advancements such as biotechnology, tissue culture and/or initiatives that adapt/mitigate the adverse effect of climate such as high density planting, develop high yielding and stress tolerant varieties and thrive for enhanced production contributing to food security and livelihood of burgeoning population in Nepal.