A report made by researchers at CGIAR says, “Climate change could lead to crops from the banana family becoming a critical food source for millions of people as we head towards a warmer world”. Cassava and the little-known cowpea plant and bananas could be much more important food crops as temperatures rise. Potato crop could disappear altogether. No more will we get to eat mashed potatoes for breakfast or potato salads and curries. People will have to adapt to new, innovative and varied meals made of bananas on the menu. Traditional crops are already seen struggling in many parts of the world as rains are erratic, colder months are becoming shorter and droughts are common. Global warming has also led to massive storms and cyclones in Asia and other parts of the world. In India too, the destructive cyclone Nilam in south Peninsula damaged the paddy crops spread across lakhs of hectares of lands. Whereas rain deficit and close to empty reservoirs in 2012 in Tamil Nadu, forced many farmers to think about other substitute crops that require less water to grow so they don’t have to suffer when rains are dismal again.
A group of experts have therefore tried to throw light on the research that predicts that the world's three biggest crops in terms of calories provided, i.e. maize, rice and wheat, could decrease in many developing countries. They suggest that the potato, which grows best in cooler climates, could suffer majorly as temperatures increase and weather becomes more volatile due to the rapid global warming effects. And these pivotal changes could therefore provide an opening for cultivating certain varieties of bananas at higher altitudes and also in places where potatoes are currently grown.
But there are still others who ask why only bananas?? Researcher, Dr. Philip Thornton answers, “It's not necessarily a silver bullet, but there may be places where as temperatures increase, bananas might be one option that small-holders could start to look at. Growing bananas could have its own limitations but it could be a good substitute at certain locations.” He also adds, “Two decades ago there was almost no rice consumption in certain areas of Africa, now there is.”
Wheat on the other hand will also face a difficult future in the developing world, where higher prices for cotton, maize and soybeans have already pushed wheat to marginal land, making it more vulnerable to stress induced by climate change. Also Soyabean, which is susceptible to temperature, could be replaced by cowpea in sub Saharan Africa. Cowpea prefers warmers climate and doesn’t need much water. In Nigeria, farmers have already moved cotton away and have begun planting cowpea.
So we suggest you get off that couch and do something to stop global warming or the only kind of potatoes left in the world will be ‘couch potatoes’.
Photo by LindstormORG.