Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture

Climate change alters agricultural production through shifts in temperature, rainfall, extreme events, water supplies, pests, and growing seasons. Effects vary by crop, region, and farming system.

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Crop heat stress: Reduced plant growth or reproduction caused by exposure to damaging temperatures. High temperatures can impair pollination and grain filling, lowering yields.
Climate-smart agriculture: An approach to farming that seeks to raise productivity, strengthen resilience, and reduce or remove greenhouse-gas emissions. It frames adaptation and mitigation as linked agricultural goals.
Food security: A condition in which all people have reliable access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food. Climate-driven production and price changes can affect food availability and access.
Agriculture and climate change: The two-way relationship in which agriculture both affects the climate and responds to its changes. This broader framing includes farming's emissions, unlike effects on agriculture alone.
Drought: A prolonged period of unusually low water availability relative to demand. Changing precipitation and greater evaporative demand can intensify agricultural water deficits.
Crop breeding: The development of crop varieties with desired traits through selection or genetic methods. Breeding can improve tolerance to heat, drought, floods, and emerging pests.
Food prices: The monetary cost of food commodities or products in a market. Weather-related supply shocks can raise prices, especially when harvests fail across major producing regions.
Climate change mitigation: Actions that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions or increase their removal from the atmosphere. Mitigation addresses the causes of climate change; this concept centers on its agricultural impacts.
Extreme precipitation: Rainfall or snowfall events that are unusually intense or persistent for a location. Flooding and waterlogging can damage crops, erode soil, and delay fieldwork.
Crop diversification: The use of multiple crops or varieties within a farming system or landscape. Diversification can spread climate risks and reduce dependence on one vulnerable harvest.