Climate change is major agricultural challenge, report says | Food and Environment Reporting Network

U.S. farmers will face more dry spells, shorter winters and hotter nights under climate change in coming decades, says the National Climate Assessment. Warmer weather can abet the spread of weeds, diseases and pests, says the report. It says climate change “has the potential to both positively and negatively affect the location, timing and productivity of crop, livestock and fishery systems at local, national and global scales.”

“(T)he magnitude of climate change projected for this century and beyond, particularly under higher emissions scenarios, will challenge the ability of the agriculture sector to continue to successfully adapt,” says the agriculture section of the report. For example, hot weather can reduce crop yields. To read the agriculture chapter, click here.

“Across the country, farmers, ranchers and forest landowners are also seeing an increase in risks to their operations due to fires, increases in invasive pests, droughts, and floods,” said USDA. “In the Midwest, growing seasons have lengthened, the western fire season is now longer, and forests will become increasingly threatened by insect outbreaks, fire, drought and storms over the next 50 years.”

For a White House fact sheet on the report, click here.