AIR POLLUTION AND ITS IMPACT ON AGRICULTURAL CROPS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES – A REVIEW

This review provides an overview of current knowledge of air pollution impacts on very important agricultural cash crops yield and quality in developing countries. Agriculture plays a crucial role in ensuring food security and in the economic growth of developing countries. The need to feed rapidly growing populations has been an important driving force behind efforts to increase agricultural production in developing countries. Increased food production is of particular significance for the poor, the vast majority of whom depend directly on agriculture or other forms of natural resource exploitation for at least part of their livelihoods. More than 850 million people in the developing world are currently undernourished. In addition, the poor may have little or no choice of area in which to farm and are more likely to be living and farming close to industrial pollution sources. Thus, alleviation of constraints on agricultural productivity, including air pollution, remains a high priority for poverty reduction efforts.