New crops, tech needed to help farmers adapt to rising heat

ROME: New technologies are the key to helping Africa and Asia’s smallholder farmers adapt to climate change, said the Gates Foundation as it pledged funding to research new crops that can thrive amid rising heat, drought and erratic rainfall. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation unveiled a $300-million plan to help farmers on Tuesday, with funds going to the development of crops that could cope with rising temperatures, wild weather and attacks from new pests and diseases. Smallholders produce up to 80 percent of food consumed in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Many are reliant on rain-fed agriculture and are extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, which is expected to hit crop yields and make the price of food more volatile, the FAO said in a 2016 report. The funding “is an opportunity to develop solutions, knowledge innovation, products, and technologies that can assist smallholders become more resilient and improve their lives and livelihoods”, said Nick Austin, the Gates Foundation’s director of agricultural development. Projected increases in temperatures would reduce the output of maize, a staple crop, by between a quarter and a half, Austin said. Smallholders are already seeing some of the impacts of climate change but their ability to respond is limited, he said.