1.3.6 Agriculture and forestry

Although agriculture and forestry are known to be highly dependent on climate, little evidence of observed changes related to regional climate changes was noted in the TAR. This is probably due to the strong influence of non-climate factors on agriculture and, to a lesser extent, on forestry, especially management practices and technological changes, as well as market prices and policies related to subsidies (Easterling, 2003). The worldwide trends in increasing productivity (yield per hectare) of most crops over the last 40 years, primarily due to technological improvements in breeding, pest and disease control, fertilisation and mechanisation, also make identifying climate-change signals difficult (Hafner, 2003).