Global warming could make vegetables harder to find

Global warming could make vegetables harder to find, unless new growing practices and resilient crop varieties are adopted, researchers warned on Monday.

There is expected to be a cut by one third of vegetables by the end of the century, a report says in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A 4 Degrees Celcius increase in temperature by 2100 will reduce vegetable production by 31.5%.

Areas to be affected the most are Southern Europe, large parts of Africa and South Asia.

Lead author Pauline Scheelbeek of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Our study shows that environmental changes such as increased temperature and water scarcity may pose a real threat to global agricultural production, with likely further impacts on food security and population health.

Senior author Alan Dangour, also of LSHTM:

Urgent action needs to be taken, including working to support the agriculture sector to increase its resilience to environmental changes and this must be a priority for governments across the world

with information from GEOtv