A
timeline has been produced by researchers on
projected climate
change and how it is set
to alter the face of agriculture in
Sub-Saharan Africa. If no action is
taken, climate change can have a
significant adverse effect on food
security; in their study, the team of
researchers provides timings of the
"transformations" needed to help
minimise these impacts.
Co-author Julian Ramirez-Villegas
from the University Of Leeds, UK,
said the study carried out by the
CGIAR research programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food
Security (CCFAS) set out to quantify
for the first time when changes to
food production were likely to happen. "Rather than focusing on what
we need to do by a certain time, we
know that there is a range of options and then we put deadlines on
these options," he told BBC News.
The team assessed when areas
growing nine of Sub-Saharan Africa's staple crops - which account for
half of the region's food production
- would have to undergo
"transformational adaptation",
which refers to a fundamental shift
in an area's food production system. For example, stop growing
crops and switch to livestock farming instead.
vancements offered hope of increasing resilience to changes in the
growing conditions.
One example was "climate smart"
crop varieties. In 2015, researchers
reported a breakthrough in the development of temperature-resilient
beans that could help sustain a vital
source of protein for millions of
people around the globe.
Dr Ramirez-Villegas said the study
found that six of the nine crops assessed were "stable in respect to
transformation and adaptation".
"It does not mean there will not be
impacts, for example the yields
might decrease," he added.
In a separate study, published in
The Lancet, researched warned that
climate change could be responsible for more than half-a-million
deaths by the middle of the century.
"But there are three - beans, maize
and bananas - that are more unstable and are therefore projected to
have large amounts of area under
transformational change.
The research was described as the
strongest evidence yet that "climate
change could have damaging consequences for food production and
health worldwide".
'Climate-smart' crops
However, he added that it was not
all bad news as technological ad-
Source: bbc.com in Freshplaza.com
Publication date: 3/8/2016