Wheat and rice are the most important crops from the point of view of
maintaining a sustainable nutrition security system for India, a country whose
population may reach one billion by the year 2000. The implications of climate
change deriving from tropical deforestation, particularly as concerns temperature
and precipitation, with reference to the yield of wheat and rice in different parts of
India are hence being studied carefully. Any possible positive gain arising from
increased CO 2 concentration is likely to be offset by the yield decline induced by
higher temperature and shorter growing period.