YORKTON - The future of our weather is – well a hot topic.
At this point you can debate/argue the reasons weather patterns are changing, but it is rather obvious our weather is ultimately changing.
And, those changes are having impacts on agriculture, and will continue to do so.
The impact can at times be rather eye-opening.
One does not expect to see a story regarding issues getting grain to port in the United States because of low water levels in the Mississippi River, but that has been the case recently on www.producer.com
Low water conditions have led to several barges running aground along a key stretch of the lower Mississippi River, the result of dry conditions meaning less river water.
Now a drought period is not in itself an indication of weather change, but it is an example of the problems weather change could mean down the road.
If weather conditions were to mean generally drier conditions in the American Midwest and the Mississippi were to run low annually as a result it would dramatically change grain movement.
The same website also has a story posted on Kyle Tapley’s case study for how climate change could affect production in Mato Grosso, the top soybean and corn producing state in Brazil. Tapley is a meteorologist and senior sales manager with Maxar Intelligence.
That is a stark vision given the significant production of two key crops which come out of Brazil.
We sometimes seem to forget we live in a world where population continues to grow, and while we at least discuss how we might best deal with weather change, how we deal with population expansion is rarely discussed, so it will continue to trend upwards.
That means we can not afford to see a major decline in food production from a region so large as Brazil without it having a significant negative impact in feeding the world’s population.
That leaves two key questions for agriculture.
The first is how the sector adapts to the weather changing. Can plant breeding provide varieties adaptive to new conditions, or is a completely different crop mix the answer?
And question two is what might be done to mitigate weather changes? If they are a natural pattern there is likely not much that can be done.
If though human activity is having an impact, then perhaps we can stem the tide of change.
Ultimately though weather is what makes agriculture happen, and we must work with it as best we can to produce the food we need.
