There is widespread concern that global warming will have a strong negative effect on crop yields.
There is widespread concern that global warming will have a strong negative effect on crop yields. Recent research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on historical maize yields across the U.S. Corn Belt suggests that a continuation of the historical yield trend will depend on a stable climate and continued farmer adjustments.
This research, conducted by Ethan Butler, postdoctoral associate in the Department of Forest Resources in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Minnesota and his colleagues from Harvard University and University of California, Irvine, analyzes how both climate and management have influenced the increase in yields. Overall, the research shows farmers have adapted to historical climate change. The combination of changes in climate, primarily cooling of the hottest temperatures, and farmer adjustments, including earlier planting and planting longer maturing varieties, increased maize yield trends 28 percent since 1981.
“We wanted to add the farmer into the picture of how climate change will affect crops,” said Butler. “Sometimes, it feels like climate change is a juggernaut that is going to trample our way of life. In this research we’ve shown that farmers have already made adjustments to better align their planting practices with historical climate changes, and we hope this can be a guide to changes in the future.”
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Image via University of Minnesota.
