Farmer's Weekly (South Africa)
Dire message for agriculture in US climate report
Climate change will increasingly result in rising temperatures, extreme heat, drought, rangeland wildfires and heavy downpours, which will gradually disrupt agricultural productivity in the US more and more.
That was the bottom line in the US government’s recent National Climate Assessment report, which stated that increasing challenges to livestock health, declines in crop yields and quality, and changes in extreme events in the US and elsewhere in the world threatened rural livelihoods, sustainable food security and price stability.
US President Donald Trump promptly dismissed the 1 600-page report, prepared by 300 scientists, as a worse-case scenario.
However, the researchers said Earth’s climate was changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilisation. This presented challenges to sustaining and enhancing crop productivity, livestock health, and the economic vitality of rural communities, according to the report. “While some regions (such as the Northern Great Plains) may see conditions conducive to expanded or alternative crop productivity over the next few decades, overall, yields for major US crops are expected to decline as a consequence of increases in temperatures and changes in water availability, soil erosion, and disease, and pest outbreaks.
“Climate change is also expected to lead to large-scale shifts in the availability and prices of many agricultural products across the world,” the report statede. – Alan Harman