Climate Change Effect on Crop Yields

Natural disaster occurrences have been steadily increasing over the past few decades. Wildfires rage through many western U.S. States such as California and Colorado, or as typhoons have torn through the Philippines all the way across the world. While these terrible disasters are the most notable, there are less noticeable, but still a major effect that climate change has such as its effects on crop yields.

Research has shown that,  ”…global yields for 18 of the most farmed crops—wheat, maize, soybeans, rice, barley, sugar beet, cassava, cotton, groundnuts, millet, oats, potatoes, pulses, rapeseed, rye, sorghum, sunflower and sweet potatoes—crops that, all together, represent 70 percent of global crop area and around 65 percent of global caloric intake” (Seo). With temperatures increasing, certain areas of the world will be affected tremendously. Some of the locations that will be affected more substantially are: Sub-Sahara African countries and countries such as Brazil, India, Indonesia, and Venezuela.

While some countries will be affected negatively from a 1-degree Celsius rise, other locations around the Earth will benefit. United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) data shows that countries with an already high crop yield will be able to increase their total yields. Similar findings have also been found when looking at calorie consumption among countries, higher yields for higher caloric consumption and lower yields for lower caloric consumption.

Geographics play major roles for specific crops. Depending on the crop, it may benefit from an overall increase in temperature in one place, but not the next. Environmental Health News states, “For rice yields, for example, a 1-degree Celsius temperature rise predicted an approximate 20 percent yield decrease in India, but an approximate 10 percent yield increase in Russia” (Seo). Knowing this it will be important that countries and regions adapt to their circumstances. Countries whose crop yields benefit from climate change should attempt to produce more. Without adaption, food shortages will rise throughout the world making food prices rise and even inaccessible for some people.

References

https://www.ehn.org/climate-change-and-food-security-2647870834.html