Many African staple food crops are at risk due to climate change, and there is an urgent need for strict actions to help farmers become accustomed to changing weather patterns, revealed a new study. With changing climate, farmers in many regions across Africa will have to adapt with the change. Unless the farming community receives helps from government and local authorities, food scarcity could lead to catastrophic outcomes, mainly due to changing weather patterns in Africa.

Researchers warned that if we fail to tackle the problem now, it will be very difficult to grow some food crops in sub-Saharan Africa in near future. Climate change is threatening the region’s nine crops, including beans, maize and bananas, as per the study.

The study was conducted to see climate change’s impact on the region’s nine crops that make up about 50% food production of Africa. About one-third regions where farmers grow bananas and maize, and more than half of those producing beans may stop providing favorable conditions to grow the crops by 2100, as per the study.

Out of nine studied crops, three—beans, maize and bananas—will be at risk by the end of this century. The remaining six—groundnut, cassava, finger millet, pearl millet, yam and sorghum—will still be stable, but under extreme weather conditions, the study found.

“This study tells where, and crucially when, interventions need to be made to stop climate change destroying vital food supplies in Africa. We know what needs to be done, and for the first time, we now have deadlines for taking action”, said Julian Ramirez-Villegas, a researcher from the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and lead author of the study.

To eliminate climate change’s effects, over 40% areas growing maize should be transformed, which means type of crop grown in the area should be changed, the study stated. Sorghum and millet are two of the crops that can replace maize as they know how to tackle drought and extreme weather conditions.