Paper Title
Impacts of Climate Results in Albanian Agriculture Shkodra Region
Abstract
A lot of observations has shown that precipitations and temperatures are becoming unstable in each season, which have made agriculture more vulnerable to such changes. Scientists have highlighted that there is a need to consider more seriously climate change impacts in agriculture policies and decision-making. As being an emergent problem we aim to bring in consideration the regional impacts of climate change in agriculture in Albania. This paper, is part of our Ph.D. research and introduces a problematic situation related to climate impacts on crops yields. Our case study is focused in Shkodra region which is located northwest of Albania and it is considered as one of the most vulnerable area. The area is characterized by abundant precipitation in winter which goes up to (1884.4 mm/year) whereas the annual mean temperature for the entire zone remains about 15�C. According to Second National Communication of Albania to UNFCCC. (2009) it is excepted that climate is going to bring more stress for agriculture crops. Agriculture is an important sector for Shkodra whereas the land is mostly flat and fertile and has around 14.05% of total agricultural land in Albania. Results revealed that seasonal temperatures and precipitation respond differently in crops where higher precipitation in winter has caused a reduction in wheat yield whereas higher levels of temperature in spring has a positive impact in wheat yield.
Index Terms�climate change, agriculture, extreme events