Paris (AFP)

Crop losses linked to episodes of heat waves and drought have tripled in the last fifty years in Europe, according to a study which underlines the importance of thinking about crops adapted to climate change.

In this study, published recently in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the researchers are based on data from agricultural production and on extreme weather events (drought, heatwave, floods, cold snap) in 28 European countries (current EU and United Kingdom ) between 1961 and 2018.

The most significant impacts concern droughts and heat waves: "The severity of the impacts of droughts and heat waves on agricultural production has roughly tripled over the past 50 years", from a drop of 2.2% in production over the period 1964-1990 to a rate of 7.3% over the period 1991-2015.

"Even though European crop yields increased by almost 150% between 1964-1990 and 1991-2015, we found that droughts and heat waves had more serious consequences in the most recent period for different types of cultures, ”commented lead author Teresa Bras, from the Nova School of Science and Technology in Lisbon.

The figures show that droughts, more and more frequent, are also more and more intense: "The most severe episodes become disproportionately more severe".

The researchers did not expect the impacts to be "so severe," added Jonas Jägermeyr, of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at NASA.

The first victims are cereals, as opposed to other crops (vegetables, vines, fruits, etc.) which use irrigation much more widely, the study notes.

"Cereals, a staple that occupies nearly 65% ​​of the EU's cultivated area and is mainly used for animal feed, is the crop most severely affected. We have notably found that for each year marked by an episode of drought, cereal losses increased by 3%, "said Teresa Bras.

While these extreme episodes are expected to multiply with global warming, the authors call for reflection "on strategies and priorities in order to improve the resilience of the agrifood system".

This "requires a new look at more resistant food species", commented Dr Julia Seixas, also from the Nova School in Lisbon.

This question is all the more important given that the European Union is one of the leading producers and exporters of agrifood products.

What happens there can therefore have "repercussions on the global agrifood system", whether on prices or product availability, the study notes.

Thus, the heatwave and drought of 2018 in Europe "caused a drop in cereal production by 8% compared to the average of the previous five years, leading to shortages of fodder for livestock and soaring prices".

© 2021 AFP