By: Jemimah Chungu
The effects of climate change continue to prevail affecting all forms of life on this planet. Climate change is a long shift of weather- climate patterns due to natural and human induced environmental changes.
In the latest review, the natural production of pollen of some sensitive crops has been adversely affected by increasing global temperatures reducing agriculture production in some regions. Pollen is a substance of powdery form found in plant seeds, essential for seed germination into plants and agriculture at large.
Pollen decline will spell low productivity in agricultural activities resulting into low income for a large population across the continent and globe. This will eventually threaten poverty amidst so that human suffering will worsen given the prevailing conflicts and the Covid 19 pandemic.
The crops determined as most vulnerable to rising temperatures of climate change are tomatoes, rice and canola, these are most popular in African dishes.
Regrettably, these damages are described as environmental threshold. According to Environmental expert Jean Walter, there is basically no return, heat exposure for just a few hours is enough to lead to permanent damage.
Meanwhile, scientists are trying to find a solution to the pollen decline by trying out new techniques of producing unnatural/ human made pollen and crops in laboratories and championing heat resistant crops such as beans and chickpeas.
According to Gloria Muday, a researcher who helped create crops using gene-editing technology, the tomatoes ‘appear to be extra good at dealing with high-temperature stress’. Muday’s team is now helping detect genes that could support plant pollen handle higher temperatures with the hope to help farmers incorporate these genes into new and more resilient crops. Additional text by conservation.org.
