Climate change threatens to cut main crop yields
The climate change will negatively impact on such vital crops as wheat, rice and maize, asserted in the report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The scientific report is based on summarized review of 70 prior researches on global warming, including imitation of temperature changes and reaction of crops at the global and domestic scales, and statistical modeling, built on historical weather and harvesting data. Each degree Celsius growth in global average temperature would cut average global yields of wheat by 6%, rice yields - by 3.2 %, and maize - by 7.4 %, prognosticates the paper. These three crops play a crucial role in the life of mankind, since they account for more than 40% of all food calories intake. These four crops play role to the life of humanity, as they supply two-thirds of caloric intake. The new statistical model elaborated by scientists of the University of California and Cornell University forecast that wheat and barley yields to decrease by 17-33 % by the end of the century. The situation seams more alarming along with the growing gap between the global wheat production and consumption, as well as expanding world population. FAO reduced projections on global cereal production in 2017 by 1.2 million tonnes to 2 593 million tonnes, 0.6 % below the 2016 level. The authors of the research came to the point that heat increase, caused by global warming would not be compensated by a decrease of temperatures in winter season. The negative effect of temperature rise will be mitigated to some extent by precipitations increase, but not sufficiently. However, the researchers haven’t found if technological upgrade in agro-science could lower the impact. This includes breeding of heat-resistant crop sorts and advanced farming. They intend to hold on the studies by exploring the role of adaptation to climate change. The climate change and its complex impact on every sector of economy and life take high priority in government’s agenda in Turkmenistan. According to existing data, annual air temperature in the country increase averagely by 0.18-0.2°С over the decade. Turkmenistan, as country with a fast growing economy, realizes possible measures to address climate change issues and ensuring sustainability of crop growing being one of the pillars of food security. Turkmen scientists are systematically working on improvement of grain quality, ameliorative condition of lands and introduction of advanced technologies in the field of land reclamation and water management. The situation on country’s farmlands will be monitored with the help of a national satellite from space.
