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Climate change has likely already affected global food production.

Authors :
Ray, Deepak K.
West, Paul C.
Clark, Michael
Gerber, James S.
Prishchepov, Alexander V.
Chatterjee, Snigdhansu
Source :
PLoS ONE. 5/31/2019, Vol. 14 Issue 5, p1-18. 18p.
Publication Year :
2019

Abstract

Crop yields are projected to decrease under future climate conditions, and recent research suggests that yields have already been impacted. However, current impacts on a diversity of crops subnationally and implications for food security remains unclear. Here, we constructed linear regression relationships using weather and reported crop data to assess the potential impact of observed climate change on the yields of the top ten global crops–barley, cassava, maize, oil palm, rapeseed, rice, sorghum, soybean, sugarcane and wheat at ~20,000 political units. We find that the impact of global climate change on yields of different crops from climate trends ranged from -13.4% (oil palm) to 3.5% (soybean). Our results show that impacts are mostly negative in Europe, Southern Africa and Australia but generally positive in Latin America. Impacts in Asia and Northern and Central America are mixed. This has likely led to ~1% average reduction (-3.5 X 1013 kcal/year) in consumable food calories in these ten crops. In nearly half of food insecure countries, estimated caloric availability decreased. Our results suggest that climate change has already affected global food production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
19326203
Volume :
14
Issue :
5
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
PLoS ONE
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
136757545
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217148