ABSTRACT: We use the ARIMA-GARCH model to estimate the shocks of COVID-19 on Chinese agricultural markets and utilize the ARDL-ECM model to estimate the integration relationships between Chinese and international agricultural markets which are based on the effective market hypothesis theory and daily trading data of US, UK, China and India. The main study findings showed that COVID-19 has a significant negative impact on agricultural product market, specifically, India suffered with the greatest negative impact, followed by the UK, the US and China. Further, this study results revealed that Chinese grain markets that are considered strategic places have not been separated from international markets, but there still exist segmentation phenomena among non-strategic agricultural markets.

RESUMO: Utilizamos o modelo ARIMA-GARCH para estimar os choques da COVID-19 nos mercados agrícolas chineses e utilizamos o modelo ARDL-ECM para estimar as relações de integração entre os mercados agrícolas chineses e internacionais que se baseiam na teoria da hipótese de mercado eficaz e nos dados comerciais diários dos EUA, Reino Unido, China e Índia. As principais conclusões do estudo mostram que a COVID-19 tem um impacto negativo significativo no mercado de produtos agrícolas, especificamente, a Índia sofreu o maior impacto negativo, seguida pelo Reino Unido, pelos EUA e pela China. Além disso, os resultados deste estudo revelam que os mercados chineses de cereais, considerados locais estratégicos, não foram separados dos mercados internacionais, mas ainda existem fenômenos de segmentação entre os mercados agrícolas não estratégicos.

RESUMO: O objetivo deste artigo é examinar os efeitos das mudanças climáticas na agricultura, especialmente a produção agrícola e os fatores de influência do desenvolvimento agrícola em termos de uso racional no Paquistão. Devido à dependência do desenvolvimento econômico e da agricultura na região do sul da Ásia do acesso a recursos nacionais renováveis e à vulnerabilidade associada às mudanças climáticas, os recursos financeiros e profissionais limitados da República Islâmica do Paquistão exigem uma definição clara das prioridades nacionais nessa área. Na preparação deste artigo, foram utilizados métodos gerais de cognição científica, em particular métodos teórico-empíricos. Os métodos de agrupamento e classificação foram utilizados para processar e sistematizar os dados. A capacidade de alterar a produtividade, dependendo da variação da temperatura média anual do ar e da taxa média anual de precipitação, foi considerada usando um modelo de regressão de dois fatores. A principal descoberta do estudo é que a temperatura e a precipitação têm um impacto negativo na produção agrícola. Este estudo pode fornecer uma justificativa científica para a especialização da produção agrícola nas regiões do Paquistão, bem como a execução das atividades agrícolas necessárias.

ABSTRACT: The current article looks at the effects of climate change on agriculture, especially crop production, and influence factors of agricultural development in terms of their rational use in Pakistan. Due to the dependence of economic development, and agriculture in the South Asian region on access to renewable national resources and the associated vulnerability to climate change, the limited financial and professional resources of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan require a clear definition of national priorities in this area. In the preparation of this article, general scientific cognition methods, in particular, empirical-theoretical methods were used. Grouping and classification methods have been used to process and systematize the data. The ability to change productivity, depending on the variation of the average annual air temperature and the average annual precipitation rate, was considered using a two-factor regression model. The main finding of the study is that temperature and precipitation have a negative impact on agricultural production. This study can provide a scientific justification for the specialization of agricultural production in the regions of Pakistan as well as the execution of the necessary agricultural activities.

Abstract Increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and associated climatic variability is primarily responsible for inducing heat waves, flooding and drought stress. Among these, water scarcity is a major limitation to crop productivity. Water stress can severely reduce crop yield and both the severity and duration of the stress are critical. Water availability is a key driver for sustainable cotton production and its limitations can adversely affect physiological and biochemical processes of plants, leading towards lint yield reduction. Adaptation of crop husbandry techniques suitable for cotton crop requires a sound understanding of environmental factors, influencing cotton lint yield and fiber quality. Various defense mechanisms e.g. maintenance of membrane stability, carbon fixation rate, hormone regulation, generation of antioxidants and induction of stress proteins have been found play a vital role in plant survival under moisture stress. Plant molecular breeding plays a functional role to ascertain superior genes for important traits and can offer breeder ready markers for developing ideotypes. This review highlights drought-induced damage to cotton plants at structural, physiological and molecular levels. It also discusses the opportunities for increasing drought tolerance in cotton either through modern gene editing technology like clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR/Cas9), zinc finger nuclease, molecular breeding as well as through crop management, such as use of appropriate fertilization, growth regulator application and soil amendments.