Experts worry warmer Earth will slash farm yields
Pastor Dale Morgan
Experts worry warmer Earth will slash farm yields*
04 Dec 2006 18:00:22 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Missy Ryan
WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Urgent action is needed to make sure a
warming climate doesn't slash crop yields, heighten the risk of famine
and deepen poverty for the world's most vulnerable, international
experts said on Monday.
"Climate change is not just in the future. It's happening now," said
Cynthia Rosenzweig, a NASA scientist and co-chair of an international
panel on climate change, told a meeting of the Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Researchers held in Washington.
The group brings together experts from 15 agricultural research centers
around the world funded by states, international organizations and
private foundations.
By now, the threat of global warming is a familiar one: many scientists
believe rising global temperatures, exacerbated by combustion of fossil
fuels, will bring warmer, wetter and more violent weather. That in turn
is expected to raise sea levels and threaten the life and livelihood of
millions, especially in coastal areas.
But farm and food experts gathered for the group's annual meeting this
week focused on how climate change will affect harvests.
They said warming could bring more drought and shorter growing seasons
to places like Tanzania and Mozambique, increase flooding in coastal
areas of countries including Bangladesh, and reduce crop yields in
countries like Colombia.
The effect of global warming on farmers will be spotty, said Robert
Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute
in the Philippines.
It might boost potato yields in the northern hemisphere, he said, but
cut them across Africa, South and East Asia, and northern South America,
where the potato is a staple crop and people are more likely to go hungry.
Experts said the first step to countering the looming threat is further
research that will produce weather and crop forecasts than can inform
policymakers' decisions.
Development of hardier "climate-ready" crops that can withstand warmer
climates and resist water and salt is also needed, they said.
Climate-sensitive management, including more efficient use of water,
will also help.
Zeigler said some of that research is already happening, including
development of drought-tolerant maize in southern Africa, but it needs
to be accelerated.
To help that happen, agriculture experts are working to forge ties with
the climate change community.