Agriculture and horticulture in numbers

The contribution of agriculture to the economy of Cyprus currently is about 2% of GDP, employing 7% of the total workforce (1).

Vulnerabilities Cyprus

A study carried out recently for Cyprus concluded that climate variability, high temperatures and limited precipitation restrict crop production in Cyprus. It was shown that annual crop yields in Cyprus may be reduced by 41%- 43% for 2013‐2020 compared to 1980‐2009 (SRES scenario A1B) (2).

The projected warming in the period 2031-2060 compared with 1971-2000, mostly in spring and summer, might expose the crops to conditions likely to have an adverse impact on the phenological stages of the plants, which, as a consequence, may affect the plants’ production and crop quality. The crops of potatoes, wheat and tomato may be negatively affected from the warming projected over the three islands. The impact on olive tree is not clear (4).

Adaptation strategies - Cyprus

The following adaptation measures have been recommended (3):

• Sustainable use of water resources with special attention to halt overexploitation of groundwater and to improve irrigation management;
• Sound use of chemical pesticides/herbicides and fertilizers to protect soil and water resources from pollution/degradation;
• The Code of Good Agricultural Practice must be implemented and the organic, traditional and family farming should be enhanced;
• Soil fertility and residual soil moisture has to be maintained and soil salination and erosion should be prevented;
• The use of indigenous and locally‐adapted plants and animals as well as the selection and multiplication of crop varieties and autochthonous races adapted or resistant to adverse conditions and climatic stress must be promoted;
• Sowing/planting season and animal husbandry methods must be adjusted;
• Special attention should be paid to pollinators’ protection and to research and prevention of pests and diseases outbreaks.

References

The references below are cited in full in a separate map 'References'. Please click here if you are looking for the full references for Cyprus.

1. Cystat (2008), in: Zachariadis (2010)
2. Bruggeman et al. (2011), in: Shoukri and Zachariadis (2012)
3. Shoukri and Zachariadis (2012)
4. Varotsos et al. (2021)