Agriculture faces challenges as a result of climate change

The members of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) held a meeting in Brussels from 2nd to 5th April to present new assessments of the effects of climate change.

Whatever the extent of these changes in the decades to come, people’s living conditions and the balance in the ecosystem will be disrupted:

> Many hundreds of millions of people will be obliged to leave their homes (such as those who live near the densely populated estuaries of Asian rivers);
> Nearly 120 million more people will suffer from famine.

Africa will be the first country to suffer as a result of this problem, because of its vulnerability to drought and the loss of arable land. In Southern Europe, the quantity of available water will decrease by 5 to 35% with major consequences for agricultural production. Finally, in the dry regions of South America, agricultural land and areas used for livestock farming affected by salinization will be unfit for cultivation.

As the world population is expected to increase to 9 billion by 2050, agricultural production has become a major issue.

Innovation and research are the vital factors necessary to increase agricultural productivity in order to satisfy the food needs of everyone living on the planet. With the growing impact of climate and environmental changes, it is urgent that we find coherent, realistic instruments capable of anticipating the evolution of agricultural markets, and consequently, to guarantee the security of supplies.