Of course, climate alarmists tend to be GMO alarmists as well.
The media release is below.
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Crop breeding is not keeping pace with climate change
UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
Crop yields will fall within the next decade due to climate change unless immediate action is taken to speed up the introduction of new and improved varieties, experts have warned.
The research, led by the University of Leeds and published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, focusses on maize in Africa but the underlying processes affect crops across the tropics.
Study lead author Professor Andy Challinor, from the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds, said: “In Africa, gradually rising temperatures and more droughts and heatwaves caused by climate change will have an impact on maize.
“We looked in particular at the effect of temperature on crop durations, which is the length of time between planting and harvesting. Higher temperatures mean shorter durations and hence less time to accumulate biomass and yield.”
It takes anywhere between 10 and 30 years to breed a new crop variety and have it adopted by farmers. The rate at which temperatures are increasing across the tropics means that by the time the crop is in the field it is being grown in warmer temperatures that it was developed in.
By looking at a range of data on farming, regulatory policy, markets and technologies, the researchers developed average, best and worst case scenarios for current crop breeding systems.
The researchers found that crop duration will become significantly shorter by as early as 2018 in some locations and by 2031 in the majority of maize-growing regions in Africa. Only the most optimistic assessment – in which farming, policy, markets and technology all combine to make new varieties in 10 years – showed crops staying matched to temperatures between now and 2050.
The research team, comprising experts in agriculture, climate and social science, looked at the options for ensuring that crops can be developed and delivered to the field more quickly. These range from improved biochemical screening techniques to more socially-centred measures, such as improving government policies on breeding trials and farmers’ access to markets.
Dr Andy Jarvis, from CIAT (International Centre for Tropical Agriculture), said: “Investment in agricultural research to develop and disseminate new seed technologies is one of the best investments we can make for climate adaptation. Climate funds could be used to help the world’s farmers stay several steps ahead of climate change, with major benefits for global food security.”
The researchers have also proposed an alternative plan: use global climate models to determine future temperatures, then heat greenhouses to those temperatures and develop new crop varieties there.
Professor Challinor said: “The challenge here is in knowing what future emissions will be and ensuring that climate models can produce accurate enough information on future temperatures based on those emissions.
“At the Priestley Centre, researchers are working on these challenges by improving climate models and targeting their use directly at solving such problems.”
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There are countless millions fallow acres of former cropland developed during the late 1800s and early 1900s. These have been abandoned to deer and other wildlife because they were less convenient to harvest. They are still available should we ever need them.
Oh, yeah.
When one summer is significantly hotter than the last, my vegetables just suffer horribly!
(Only if I am too dumb to adjust the drip timer.)
The only crop that has any trouble is radishes and they never liked ANY summer where I live.
I figure the biggest problem is the neo-Luddites anyway.
Food/crop production is at record high levels, and worldwide malnutrition is at record lows, according to the World Health Organization. These AGW fruit loop pixies just won’t accept the reality that CO2 and AGW is not an issue of concern.
Who has a clue what temperatures are in Africa?
You’re right, DMA. Plus, extra CO2 makes plants more drought resistant and water-efficient, by improving stomatal conductance relative to transpiration, which is especially helpful in arid regions. (Google finds many articles about it.) When air passes through plant stomata (pores), two things happen: the plant absorbs CO2, and the plant loses water through transpiration. When CO2 levels are higher, the ratio of CO2 absorbed to water lost improves, which improves both plant growth and drought resistance. The plants also commonly respond to elevated CO2 by reducing the density of the stomata in their leaves, which reduces water loss. As a result, some of the world’s deserts and near-deserts are greening.
“The rate at which temperatures are increasing across the tropics means that by the time the crop is in the field it is being grown in warmer temperatures that it was developed in.”
Is 0.8C/ 100yr really to tough to out run? In my experience I have never observed a crop that was sensitive to that small of change. And why would the growing season be shortened in a warmer world with more CO2? Somehow I am not convinced this is much to worry about.
http://www.earth-policy.org/images/uploads/graphs_tables/indicator3_2012_CornWheatRice.PNG