Priority for climate adaptation measures in European crop production systems

To date, assessing the adaptive measures to climate change effects on cropping systems have generally been based on data from field trials and crop models. This strategy can only explore a restricted number of options with a limited spatial extent. Therefore, we designed a questionnaire that incorporated both qualitative and quantitative aspects of climate change adaptation in the agricultural sector. The questionnaire was distributed to experts from 15 European countries to map both the observed and planned climate adaptive measures in general and for five major crops (wheat, oilseed rape, maize, potato, and grapevine) in six environmental zones (EnZs) across Europe. In northern Europe, changed timing of field operations and introduction of new crops and cul-tivars were the already observed as the main adaptations to a longer growing season and reduced low-temperature stress under climate change. Farmers in central and southern Europe were mainly changing water and soil management as well as adopting drought-tolerant cultivars to cope with increasing

Automated summary

This study assessed the adaptive measures to climate change effects on cropping systems in Europe by distributing questionnaires to experts from 15 European countries. The results showed that farmers in northern Europe mainly adjusted the timing of field operations and introduced new crops and cultivars, while farmers in central and southern Europe focused on changing water and soil management and adopting drought-tolerant cultivars.