Agriculture: Despite agricultural advancements in the last 60 years, a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change shows that global farming productivity is 21 percent lower than it could have been. The reason: climate change.
According to the researchers, this decline is equivalent to losing about seven years of farm productivity increases since the 1960s.
The future impact of climate change on global crop production has been estimated in many scientific reports, but the historic influence of climate change on the agricultural sector has not yet been modelled.
“We find that climate change has basically wiped out about seven years of improvements in agricultural productivity over the past 60 years,” said researcher Ariel Ortiz-Bobea from Cornell University. “It is equivalent to pressing the pause button on productivity growth back in 2013 and experiencing no improvements since then”, he added.
“When we zoom into different parts of the world, we find that the historical impacts of climate change have been larger in areas already warmer, including parts of Africa, Latin America, and Asia,” he said.
What will it take to prioritise climate change? Read this article to know more.
