Photo credit: Canada Grocer
A new multi-year study has pointed to a real-time example of the effects of climate change on agriculture.
UkrAgroConsult reports that a recent paper has suggested that diseases cost Canadian and US wheat producers US$2.9 billion between 2018 and 2021.
That equates to the loss of about 560 million bushels, or about $18.10 per acre across 29 US states and in Ontario.
Researchers say 2019 was the worst year observed, with 188 bushels lost to disease.
Climate change can assist in the proliferation of agricultural diseases by creating longer, warmer seasons that help new, and potentially more dangerous, pathogen strains emerge. It can also increase the range of a pathogen and put more plants at risk. It also enables invasive crop pests to increase their range on ventures into the areas that were previously off-limits, due to historically colder temperatures.
As of 2023, Canada’s agricultural industry employed 2.3 million people and generated about $150 billion annually, equating to about 7 per cent of the country’s GDP.
