Climate change models find maize, millet, other staple crops face ruin on up to one million square kilometers of African farmland

A new study by researchers from the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the UK’s Waen Associates has found that by 2050, hotter conditions, coupled with shifting rainfall patterns, could make anywhere from 500,000 to one million square kilometres of marginal African farmland no longer able to support even a subsistence level of food crops. However, the land, on which some 20 to 35 million people currently live, may still support livestock.