Climate change could create agricultural winners and losers in East Africa, new study warns

As African leaders prepare to present an ambitious proposal to industrialized countries for coping with climate change in the part of the world that is most vulnerable to its impacts, a new study points to where and how some of this money should be spent. Published in the peer-reviewed journal Agricultural Systems, the study projects that climate change will have highly variable impacts on East Africa’s vital maize and bean harvests over the next two to four decades, presenting growers and livestock keepers with both threats and opportunities.

“Even though these types of projections involve much uncertainty, they leave no room for complacency about East Africa’s food security in the coming decades,” said the lead author of the new study, Philip Thornton of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)…