Climate change to force crop switch for small farmers: experts

One issue, not mentioned in the article, is that the thirsty crops also have shallow roots, so they do not put CO2 back deep in the soil, where it needs to go.

A good alternative might be quinoa, which is a drought resistant crop, as it requires less water, and can adapt to different climatic conditions.

The average temperature rise, endlessly trotted out, is not the problem. Periods of unstable, extreme weather are, as outdoor crops will find it tough to survive an entire growing season.

I've never found sweetcorn to be 'thirsty'. Once mine are established, I don't water them, even during heat waves. It will be sensible to grow varieties that mature quickly, but most farmers already do this.

Sweetcorn will do well in heat, but beans (especially runner beans) may struggle. Rice is going to be especially vulnerable to drought and flooding.

Farmers need to watch out for multinationals exploiting this, locking them into deals for proprietary GM crops and polluting pesticides. There is usually a better alternative that will work out cheaper and allow them to save their own seed for the next harvest.

Corn has many uses but i don't see it as beneficial as what other crops have to offer and it renders the soil difficult for crop rotation without the use of alot of fertilizers.

Nutritionally its not very useful and corn sugars are problematic.

Mostly what they are taking about is the commercial yellow or white corn and not the purple , blue or red corn.

No thanks to monsanto either.

I suggest amaranth or quinoa

The average temperature rise is the driving force behind all the other extreme weather phenomena, Countering the rise will reduce the damage from the other events but the change will be slow so while we need to tackle it we also need to adapt to the changes that are already happening and the further changes that are inevitable. Not just in Africa but also in the developed world.

Yes the climate has always changed but we are accelerating current changes so it is in our hands to mitigate and undo it. Of course if you are happy with the collapse of current technological civilisation and the concomitant death of billions of people and your children if they survive living an at best dark age existence or worse , fine but that says a lot about you. And by the way if the current civilisation collapses it won’t rise again as there are no longer the easily accessed energy dense resources to power it, we have used them up. It’s a one time civilisational opportunity.

Corn/maize has been a major staple for Native North Americans for millenia. Aztecs did genetic engeneering on it to produce higher food yield. At the same time the great Anasazi civilization was reduced to the Pueblos because of a climate change in modern Arizona/New Mexico around the year 1000 or so. That made growing maize even tougher for them.

Climate changes have happened before and they continue to occur, naturally and by mankind's pollution. Trump sez, 'Climate change! it's a myth! Bluuuuhhh!'. And he's lying, he can't be depended on to tell the truth.

The evidence is here, it's happened before and it's happening again. And we have to act on it quick!

So eight countries in the article, all in Africa (a continent that does not get much precipitation for a huge portion), also not the most technologically advanced, may have issues trying to grow a crop that is not native and difficult to get right anyway, will have more issues because of climate change.

Did Al Gore have input on this?

JD. There is huge amounts of peer reviewed, evidence based research but if you choose to ignore or can’t understand it nothing is going to change your misconceptions.

I remember having breakfast at a friends house a few years back.

Got given a steaming beverage and thought it was a cappuccino.

Took a large gulp only to find it was corn potage soup.

I for one won’t be too gutted if maize is less cultivated in the future.

Corn in poor countries is for food. In rich countries like America it is ,outlying used for hundreds of other purposes. Amazing material.

The evidence is here, it's happened before and it's happening again. And we have to act on it quick!

Look up the global temperature changes during the end of the last ice age, during the Younger-Dryas period. The earth's climate shifted around 20 degrees multiple times, melting the 2km ice sheets covering the northern hemisphere in a geological blink of an eye. This was many millennia before humans had built any industrial civilization. The alarmists are saying that a rise in temperature of 2 degrees would be apocalyptic for humanity. But they fail to mention that the earth's climate naturally moves in violent cycles, with or without us. There's actually nothing we can do to stop it, eventually there will be another ice age, followed by rapid melting and flooding. It is well beyond our power to prevent.

The average temperature rise is the driving force behind all the other extreme weather phenomena,

What extreme weather phenomena? You mean hurricanes and typhoons? You realize we've always had those? Where's the evidence of any long term trend to more extreme weather?

Yes the climate has always changed but we are accelerating current changes so it is in our hands to mitigate and undo it.

Based on what evidence? Computer models? Seriously, you can make all these pronouncements, but it doesn't make it a fact.

Of course if you are happy with the collapse of current technological civilisation and the concomitant death of billions of people and your children if they survive living an at best dark age existence or worse , fine but that says a lot about you.

Righto... this reminds me of Millennialism in the middle ages, where hysterical people would preach about the end times. When those end times never came, they'd constantly revise their pronouncements further into the future ("this time it's really happening!"). There is actually no evidence whatsoever that humans are causing catastrophic climate chance. Yet, the earth is perfectly capable of inflicting such catastrophic change all on its own, and has done so countless times in the geological past. It's hardly something worth worrying about, life's too short.

There is huge amounts of peer reviewed, evidence based research

Can you post one?

JD. There is huge amounts of peer reviewed, evidence based research but if you choose to ignore or can’t understand it nothing is going to change your misconceptions.

Oh, gotcha. The Science™ claims it, so you just believe it. The same people who have lied to us all throughout this Covid 'crisis'. Their models claiming that 2 million in the US would die without lockdowns in early 2020. The Science™ also predicted that sea levels would have risen by now, flooding coastal cities around the globe. Turns out The Science™ is wrong, a lot. But that doesn't matter to its religious adherents. You'll just believe whatever you're told. You have faith.