Wild weather is wreaking havoc on crops around the world, sending their prices skyrocketing. https://www.bloombergquint.com/business ... -inflationWild weather is wreaking havoc on crops around the world, sending their prices skyrocketing. On wheat farms in the U.S. and Russia, it’s a drought that’s ruining harvests. The soybean fields of Brazil are bone dry too, touched by little more than the occasional shower. In Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, the problem is the exact opposite. Torrential downpours are causing flooding in rice fields and stands of oil palm trees.
The sudden emergence of these supply strains is a big blow to a global economy that has been struggling to regain its footing after the shock of the Covid-19 lockdowns. As prices soar on everything from sugar to cooking oil, millions of working-class families that had already been forced to scale back food purchases in the pandemic are being thrust deeper into financial distress. What’s more, these increases threaten to push up broader inflation indexes in some countries and could make it harder for central bankers to keep providing monetary stimulus to shore up growth
The Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index, a gauge of nine crop prices, has risen 28% since late April to its highest level in more than four years. Wheat earlier this week was the most expensive since 2014. “The fundamentals have changed dramatically since May,” said Don Roose, president of brokerage U.S. Commodities in Iowa. “The weather is bubbling to the top, and we have demand chugging in a bull market.
The fallout from the pandemic means that the United Nations was already warning of a worst-case scenario in which about a tenth of the world’s population would go hungry this year. Things could become more dire if grocery costs keep rising and even more people can’t afford to eat.
“It’s looking very bleak,” said David Beasley, executive director at the World Food Programme, the hunger-fighting group that won the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize. Declining currencies in food-importing nations, the threat of more economic shutdowns and struggles for farmers to expand production could all compound the problem, he said.
Climate scientists have long warned that an increase in unpredictable and extreme weather patterns would be a growing threat to crop production and food security. Now, we are experiencing what it means to be living in a climate-disrupted world as wildfires blaze across the U.S. West, hurricane season grows more ferocious and forecasters say that 2020 could be the world’s hottest year on record
A Living Nightmare: Defeating the Locust Plague of 2020
(this article is from earlier in the year - see up date below)
https://www.bayer.com/en/news-stories/a ... ue-of-2020Scientists note climate change as a main driver of the current outbreak. Severe weather conditions including heat extremes, strong cyclones and unusually heavy rains in the Arabian Peninsula are creating ideal conditions for adult populations to explode.
A worldwide locust upsurge is hitting countries around the globe with East Africa and the Horn of Africa seeing the worst outbreak in decades – destroying hectares of farmland and putting millions at risk of hunger and famine.
Ravenous locust swarm clouds more than three times the size of New York City descended in northeast Kenya, which is battling its worst infestation in 70 years. In the Wachile region of Ethiopia, locust swarms forced more than 15,000 people to evacuate their homes in May. Swarms travelling from Pakistan into India made their way to the northern states for the first time since 1962. Alerts were issued in South America in late June as a 9 mile2 swarm that entered Argentina from Paraguay headed towards Uruguay. Swarms continue to form in Yemen with breeding likely to prevail throughout August and extend to the Red Sea Coastal plains. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, farmers in some of the world’s most impoverished regions are fighting to stop locusts from decimating vital crops and grazing pastures and leaving vast populations food insecure. Without immediate action, in East Africa 4.9 million people could face starvation
Desert Locust situation update 19 October 2020
http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/en/info/info/index.htmlSwarms continue in Ethiopia and Somalia
More swarms are forming from current breeding in Ethiopia and a new generation of laying has started in central Somalia and eastern Ethiopia, which could be supplemented by swarms coming from Yemen. Breeding is also underway on the Red Sea coastal plains. Consequently, additional swarm migrations and further increases in locust numbers can be expected but the situation is less dramatic than one year ago and countries are better prepared.
• ETHIOPIA. Hopper bands are slowly declining in the Afar region of the northeast due to control operations and fledging. However, numerous immature adult groups and swarms continue to form and are present, albeit slightly less than the previous week, in the northern Rift Valley on the western side along the edge of the Amhara/Tigray highlands as far north as Mekele and on the eastern side in the Harar Highlands to Jijiga. Some swarms were seen near Addis Ababa and in the Ogaden south of Degeh Bur. A few of the swarms are mature and could breed. Ground and aerial control operations are in progress. More swarms are expected to move to the Somali region, including the Ogaden, where they are likely to mature and lay eggs in favourable areas while other immature swarms could continue southwards.
• SOMALIA. Mainly immature and a few mature swarms are arriving in the northwest between Boroma and Hargeisa. In the northeast, an increasing number of mature adult groups and swarms are moving south, reaching Mudug and Galgaduud with egg-laying occurring north of Dusa Mareb. Hatching and band formation will occur while some swarms could continue south to Hiiran. Biocontrol operations are in progress.
• KENYA. A few small maturing swarms persist in Samburu county, and local breeding could eventually occur in the northwest with the Short Rains. There is a low risk that a few swarms currently in Ethiopia may arrive in the northeast about mid-November while the next generation of swarms that form in eastern Ethiopia and central Somalia are likely to arrive from mid-December onwards.
• ERITREA. Hopper groups are present in the central highlands northwest of Asmat, on the Red Sea coastal plains near Sheib and Mehimet, and in the western lowlands near Kerkebet. Ground control operations are in progress. Adult groups are likely to form and more breeding is expected on the Red Sea coast. Swarms may arrive from northern Ethiopia.
• SUDAN. Hopper bands continue in the east between the Atbara River and the Red Sea Hills mixed with some groups of mature adults, some of which are laying eggs near the Atbara River. Control operations continue. Mature solitarious adults are present in the northeast and laying eggs in a few places along Wadi Oko/Diib.
• YEMEN. Breeding is ending in the interior where infestations have declined due to control operations, migration, no significant rains for the past month and drying conditions; hence, only a few late-instar hopper bands remain near Al Hazm. A few swarms from the interior may appear on the southern coast. More immature adult groups and swarms are forming on the northern Red Sea coastal near Suq Abs from local breeding. Control operations are in progress.
• SAUDI ARABIA. Late instar hopper bands are present on the southern coastal plains of the Red Sea north of Jizan where immature adults are forming groups. Mid to late instar bands are present further north between Qunfidah and Lith that are likely to form immature adult groups. Ground control operations continue.
The situation remains calm in West Africa and southwest Asia where no significant developments will occur.
Weather Woes Continue for Farmers
Snow Complicates Harvest of Derecho-Damaged Corn
(what makes this more significant is that it follows upon the severe weather of 2019 in the US grain belt, with record rainfall and flooding which hampered crop production) https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/a ... st-derechoANKNEY, Iowa (DTN) -- Add snow squall to the list of historic and freak weather events that have plagued farmers in Iowa and other states in 2020.
Up to 9 inches of heavy, wet snow fell across the central one-third of Iowa on Oct. 19, setting records for the date. The heaviest snow fell from Harlan to Polk City and Ankeny. Most snow amounts ranged from 3 to 5 inches.
DTN Senior Ag Meteorologist Bryce Anderson said mid-October snow isn't uncommon in the Upper Midwest, but a snow squall is very rare in central Iowa this time of year. A snow squall is a short burst of heavy snowfall that can cause sudden whiteouts and gusty winds.
"It's unfortunate the heaviest snow band pretty much tracked where farmers were (the hardest hit) by the Aug. 10 derecho," Anderson said.