Nazan Koluman Darcan
Cukurova University, Turkey
Title: Impacts of climate change on animal farming in the Mediterranean region
Biography
Biography: Nazan Koluman Darcan
Abstract
Extreme climate change (CC) and atmospheric events have been become nowadays a global issue. Livestock production contributes to global warming. It is estimated that livestock responsible to 9% of human-welded CO2 emission, 35-40% of CH4 emission, 65% of N2O emission and 64% of NH3 emission. In addition, CC (increase in high temperature and drought) has been found to adversely affect livestock production. Consequently, a lot of effort is made to adjust livestock production systems to forecast on future changes in weather according to climate modeling. From this point of view, it is very important that the correct estimation will be made with regard to questions, such as which feed, or which goat breed will be found as most appropriate for different regions. The economic importance of farm animals’ production has been rise-up during last decades in Mediterranean countries. The effect of climatic change (CC) on dairy production are both direct through effects on the animals themselves, and indirect through effects on production of crops and increased exposure to pests and pathogens. These negative impacts occur in face of increasing demands for food, which is related to increase in population on earth. The demand for animal products relate to rapid increase in income in some countries (Haq and Ishaq, 2011) and the perception of dairy products as high quality and gourmet food. On the other hand, there is an increased awareness to the contribution of livestock to the greenhouse effect, and hence to global warming. The animal production systems and concept of climate change which are in mutual interaction with each other has recently become a popular subject on the agenda. In this review, the direct and indirect of climate change on farm animals in Mediterranean region will be determined.
