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The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has upgraded its innovative ABC-Map geospatial app with a new indicator that highlights the potential impact of climate change on major crops. According to the new data, crops such as wheat, coffee, beans, cassava, and plantain could lose half their optimal suitable land by 2100.

FAO Senior Natural Resources (Climate Change) Officer Martial Bernoux said, “Given the increasingly erratic weather and extreme events, including droughts, extreme heat, and floods, farmers, policymakers, and technicians need to know if the crops, investments, or projects they are considering will work or if they need to adjust and consider other crops or more adaptation measures instead.”

For further information, read more details here

The new indicator provides information on crop suitability in evolving climate scenarios, allowing users to assess potential impacts on specific crops. Users can input a location and select from 30 crop options, including coffee, maize, and wheat, to receive a crop suitability score for two different climate emission scenarios.

The study behind the upgrade, “Have crops already reached peak suitability: assessing global climatic suitability decreases for crop cultivation,” concludes that five out of nine major staple and cash crops are already losing optimal growing conditions. The study suggests significant losses for coffee, beans, and wheat, particularly in regions such as North America and Europe

In contrast, maize and rice may initially find more suitable areas for cultivation, but this situation could reverse by the end of the century under high-emission scenarios. The ABC-Map geospatial app features indicators in three sections: adaptation, biodiversity, and carbon.

The app is designed to support policymakers, technicians, and project designers in developing and implementing policy measures on climate action and agrifood system transformation. Additional indicators, including livestock heat stress and crop water requirements, are planned for release this year.

ABC-Map was launched in 2024 as part of the COP28 Agriculture, Food and Climate National Action Toolkit, aiming to help governments develop climate-resilient agricultural practices

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