How Heat Waves are Affecting Agriculture

As the world is seeing more extreme heat waves, farmers are struggling to cope with the effects it is having on their farms. When high temperatures hit an area that is not used to it, the crops and animals in those farms become extremely affected. Crops can be depleted, or even destroyed, and animals can get heat stress, which affects their productivity and fertility. These extreme heats are also decreases rainfall, which not only affects produce, but grasslands and animal feed. Dairy farmers have noticed lower milk productions and an increase in worry about their animals. This also causes problems financially, as farmers lose huge amounts of money by losing milk or crops during the heat waves. The heat also takes away a lot of the moisture from the soil, causing further problems for the current and future crops. These heat waves are most often caused by climate change and are becoming more and more regular. This doesn’t only have an immediate effect on the farmers, but can also have a long-term effect on global food security. The heat can cause long-term damage to the soil, meaning crops cannot grow, cows go into stress, meaning less milk production, and less water, meaning less food production. Heat waves cause extreme damages to farmers and their farms and can have immense implications for the future food security. The world as a whole needs to adapt more sustainable methods of functioning in order to prevent this from happening.