Drought is not the main problem of the food industry, but unpredictability

By: Trademagazin Date: 2024. 07. 26. 12:20

Climate change poses increasingly serious challenges to agricultural production worldwide, and it seems that climate disruption will become the most serious problem in the coming decades. Weather extremes, temperature increases, water management problems and the spread of pests are all serious threats to crop security. Although the task is not easy, precision agriculture and the development of resilient plant varieties offer hope that farmers can successfully face these challenges.

Extremes make management impossible to plan

One of the most direct effects of climate change is the increased frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and heat waves. These events seriously threaten crop safety, as plant development and crop yield are highly dependent on weather conditions. Agricultural production has always depended on the vagaries of the weather, but the fluctuations have now become so great that in many cases it has become impossible to plan crop production.

Droughts can be particularly devastating. In the United States, for example, the great drought of 2012 caused tens of billions of dollars in damage to agriculture. In Hungary, the 2022 drought was extremely severe, many farmers in the Great Plain were essentially unable to harvest anything, and for the first time in the history of the country, they were forced to import corn, the Agricultural Sector points out.