Climate Warming Boosts Crop Pests, Threatening Global Food Security
A recent analysis published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment by Dan Bebber and colleagues highlights the increasing threat climate warming poses to global crop production by boosting crop pests.
The study warns that a 2°C rise in temperatures could lead to significant losses in major staple crops, with projected declines of 46% for wheat, 19% for rice, and 31% for maize globally.
Pests such as aphids, planthoppers, stem borers, caterpillars, and locusts benefit from warmer temperatures, which accelerate their development, increase the number of generations per year, and extend their active seasons.
Warm conditions also enable these pests to invade higher latitudes and elevations, potentially impacting temperate regions including Europe and the United States the most.
Further exacerbating pest movement are global trade in food exports, habitat loss, and the extensive use of pesticides and fertilizers that reduce populations of natural predators.
Currently, pests and diseases are responsible for destroying about 40% of global crop production, and for every 1°C increase in warming, yields of wheat, rice, and maize could decline by 6 to 10%.
To mitigate these threats, the study advocates for diversification and building resilient farming systems. This includes restoring natural habitats to support parasitoid wasps and other predator species, which help control pest populations naturally.
Diversification strategies recommended by the study include intercropping different crop varieties and integrating crop-animal farming systems, such as ducks in rice paddies in Japan and sheep grazing on winter wheat in the UK.
Additionally, artificial intelligence could play a crucial role in predicting pest infestations and developing effective control measures by analyzing field and weather data.
The researchers note that their analysis is conservative, focusing mainly on insect pests and major grains, and does not factor in microbial diseases, fungi, nematodes, or the full range of food crops.
This study underscores the urgent need for adaptive farming approaches to safeguard global food security in the face of a warming climate.
