Most of the available agricultural land on Earth are already being cultivated. The ecological factors such as climate, soil quality, water supply and topography determine which land is appropriate or not for agriculture.

Global warming will cause areas of the earth that are now suitable for agriculture losing quality, in some cases failing to be profitable, while others that are now little or no suitable will become arable. Some countries will lose agricultural capacity and others win.Areas to be expanded its area of ​​arable land include those in the high latitudes of the North. Among those who will be affected in their area of ​​arable land include tropical regions.

In a new study, the team of Florian Zabel, Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, has focused on the likely impacts of climate change on the availability of land suitable for 16 major crops for food or energy throughout the world, including those staples such as rice, corn, soy (soy) and wheat.

These scientists simulated the impact of climate change on agricultural production along the XXI century and the results indicate that the climate change will most likely increase the availability of arable land in countries like Russia, Canada and China, in the course of the next 100 years.

In case of the absence of adaptation measures, such as increased irrigation, simulation projects a noticeable loss of suitable agricultural land in the Mediterranean regions and in areas of sub-Saharan Africa.

The situation is not as simple as that farmland is lost somewhere earn in another. Many of the new arable lands will be only moderately acceptable for agricultural use, so the proportion of fertile land used for crop production decrease. There will be more arable land, but quality mediocre. Furthermore, in the tropical regions of Brazil, Asia and Central Africa, climate change will reduce significantly the chance to get multiple harvests per year.

“In the context of current projections, which predict that the demand for food will double by 2050 as a result of increasing population, our results are quite alarming,” says Zabel.

Source - http://www.smnweekly.com/