Climate Change Mitigation Using Breeding as a Tool in the Vegetables Value Chain

Agriculture is a climate dependent activity, then both is affected by climate change and contributes to climate change. There is a vicious cycle that makes agriculture both a victim (because of negative effects of Global Warming on food supply) and a perpetrator (one of the main causes of Climatic Change). Producing more food for a starving world, agriculture requires large inputs, such as high amounts of nitrogen-based fertilisers, which in turn releases nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, one of the Greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide, an important Greenhouse gas, for instance, can be beneficious for some vegetable species. There are other impacts of climate change in vegetable production, not only in plant physiology. Plant and fruit quality are affected by elevated temperatures; affect pollination and fruit set. There are other impacts on vegetable production systems, for instance, extended growing season because of warmer springs and autumns, but also new zones will be incorporated to vegetable production, where before it was impossible to produce larger amounts of quality vegetable for temperature. Mitigation of climate change is not an easy task; it involves many actors all over the science spectrum and government policies, but mainly the people conscience. Breeders may do huge efforts to generate varieties tolerant to many stresses. A challenge is to generate varieties tolerant to high temperature stress and low input production, with high rusticity and able to respond to biotic and abiotic stresses caused by Climate Change.