‘Borrowed time’: crop pests and food losses supercharged by climate crisis | Food security | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/dec/20/crop-pests-food-losses-climate-crisisThe destruction of food supplies by crop pests is being supercharged by the climate crisis, with losses expected to surge, an analysis has concluded.
Researchers said the world was lucky to have so far avoided a major shock and was living on borrowed time, with action needed to diversify crops and boost natural predators of pests.
The key global crops, wheat, rice and maize, are expected to see the losses to pests increase by about 46%, 19% and 31% respectively when global heating reaches 2C, the scientists said.
Global heating is helping insects such as aphids, planthoppers, stem borers, caterpillars and locusts thrive. Greater warmth enables pests to develop faster, produce more generations each year and attack crops for longer as winters shorten. Rising temperatures are also helping pests invade places further from the equator and on higher ground that were previously too cold.
As a result, the climate-driven flourishing of pests will be worst in temperate places, such as Europe and the US, the researchers said. Temperatures may have already hit a limit for some insects in the tropics, they said, although the cutting of croplands into tropical forests is supporting more pests.