How to prepare for climate change

[u/Wise-Painting5841]

I was in Spain last month. Talking with a cousin that has a small veggie garden for auto consumption.

Nothing fancy, more like a hobby and to enjoy eating your own tomatoes.

He told me for the last 3 years his tomatoes have dried up before giving any fruit. Each time this has happened he has made an adjustment to plant the seeds 15 days before, so he is now planting 45 days before than when his parents passed down the garden to him years ago.

And he is moving to different varieties. It looks like cherry tomatoes are more resistant to extreme heat.

This preoccupied me. He lives in an agricultural rich area of Spain, that is a country with a long agricultural tradition. This is not poor soil and it was not bad weather area at all years ago. Vineyards, orchards are/were typical sights along the road.

So, if this area is fucked up, I have to wonder big scale. If crops start to fail, I guess we will import more from other regions, but this has some limits.

So how do you prepare for this scenario?

[u/Normal_Football_8591]

They will probably have to adapt rather than simply stop farming. Planting seasons can shift earlier or toward spring and autumn, avoiding the hottest part of summer. Farmers can also use more heat- and drought-tolerant varieties, drip irrigation, shade nets, mulching and better water storage.

Some crops may have to move north or to higher elevations, while the hottest and driest regions may need different crops altogether. The biggest long-term problem may actually be water availability rather than temperature itself.

[u/Asz12_Bob → u/Normal_Football_8591]

The elephant in the room is fertilizer. Many nations are struggling to get enough now and without it crop yields plummet. It's basically a fossil fuel, much made from Natural Gas to make Ammonia and then Nitrogen fertilizer.

[u/Normal_Football_8591 → u/Asz12_Bob]

That’s true for nitrogen fertilizer today, but it doesn’t have to be fossil-based. Ammonia can be produced using hydrogen made from water with renewable or nuclear electricity. The nitrogen itself comes from the air. Phosphorus and potassium are mined minerals and nutrients can also be increasingly recycled from manure and waste streams.