EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION ON AGRICULTURE

Abstract

In India, the problem of air pollutions increases due to boosting in size of population, industrialization, and urbanization in the last few decades. Thermal power plants and transport sector is the biggest contributor to air pollution in the country. In 1980, National Crop Loss Assessment Programme (NCLAN) was established for assessing current economic losses in agriculture by air pollution. Air pollutants are present in the forms of gases, p articles in suspension, different ionizing radiation in atmosphere and they cause directly or indirectly effects on agriculture crops as well as effects on animals and humans also. Reductions in leaf area,biomass, chlorophyll, ascorbic acid, and N contents have often been observed for the crop species growing in a polluted area. Black carbon directly absorbs sunlight, reduces the amount of light for photosynthesis and caused more damage to the crops and reduce the yields of the crops.