Bananas will dominate potatoes

Global warming can cause bananas to take the place of potatoes to become essential foods for hundreds of millions of people.

At the request of the United Nations Food Security Committee, a group of international experts built a model to predict the impact of climate change on the 22 most important agricultural products on the planet, the BBC reported.

The model shows that the yield of the three most energy-efficient food crops - corn, wheat and rice - will decline in developing countries. Production of potatoes, crops that prefer cold and moderate climates, also fell due to weather instability.

Dr. Philip Thornton, a member of the research team, said potatoes will yield to bananas in many parts of the world. Bananas will become one of the foods that several hundred million people eat regularly.

The team describes wheat as the most important source of human protein and energy. However, as prices of cotton, corn and soybeans rise rapidly, farmers in developing countries will prioritize fertile soil for those crops and push wheat to barren fields. That situation makes wheat output plummet if the average temperature of the earth increases. When wheat yields drop to a certain extent, farmers will grow cassava in wheat fields, because cassava is able to adapt to hot climates.

Bruce Campbell, program director of the Research Organization for Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, said the changes that will happen in the future have happened in the past.

"Two decades ago African people hardly ate rice, but today they use that kind of food. People have to change their habits due to fluctuations in prices. Rice is a food that people can grow and cook easily, " Campbell said.