Despite important agricultural advancements to feed the world in the last 60 years, a new study shows that global farming productivity is 21 per cent lower than it could have been without climate change.
According to the researchers, this is equivalent of losing about seven years of farm productivity increases since the 1960s.
The future potential impacts of climate change on global crop production has been quantified in many scientific reports, but the historic influence of anthropogenic climate change on the agricultural sector had yet to be 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. Anthropogenic climate change is already slowing us down," Ortiz-Bobea added.
For the study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, the team developed an all-encompassing econometric model linking year-to-year changes in weather and productivity measures with output from the latest climate models over six decades.
The researcher said they considered more than 200 systematic variations of the econometric model, and the results remained largely consistent.
"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.
Humans have already altered the climate system, the researcher said, as climate science indicates the globe is about 1 degree Celsius warmer than without atmospheric greenhouse gases.
--IANS
vc/sdr/
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU