How Climate Change is Powering Global Pests

June 4, 2020
Climate Change 

Farmers worldwide have always had to work to protect their crops from insects, which, if unchecked, could decimate harvests, reduce yields, or even negatively impact the quality of safety of foods.

Research has found that global warming could increase the number of insect pests, and boost their appetite, as well as change their migration patterns, which could pose an even greater threat to global crop production.

An increase of just 2 degrees in global temperatures could cause pest-related yield losses from wheat, rice and maize to increase by 46%, 19% and 31%, respectively. Such yield losses could have catastrophic impacts on food security, which could compound existing challenges brought on by the global pandemic.

In this heat map, we look at some regions of the world where pests could become an even greater challenge as a result of climate change, and where plant science can offer a priceless lifeline for farmers and growers.

 

Figures are in degrees Celsius. More information on this map and global climate change can be found here.