Potato
Global
Potatoes are the most important non-grain crop globally. Nighttime temperatures are particularly important for potatoes: if they are too warm, tuber growth declines and this increase alone could undermine global potato production.[1] Under a business-as-usual scenario researchers estimate up to 95% of English and Welsh potato-growing land currently dependent on rainfall will become unsuitable for production by 2050 because of increasingly dry conditions.[2] With irrigation, other areas could remain productive but will be constrained by limited access to that water.[3] Potato yields in eastern Washington State could drop as much as 22% by 2080 due to rising temperatures.[4]
References:
[1] “Potato Faces Up to Climate Change Challenges.” International Potato Center (blog), April 2, 2013. https://cipotato.org/blog/potato-faces-up-to-climate-change-challenges/.[2] Andre Daccache et al., “Climate Change and Land Suitability for Potato Production in England and Wales: Impacts and Adaptation,” 2012, 161, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021859611000839.
[3] Keith Weatherhead and Nicholas Howden, “The Relationship between Land Use and Surface Water Resources in the UK,” Land Use Policy 26 (December 1, 2009), 249, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2009.08.007.
[4] Claudio O. Stöckle et al., “Assessment of Climate Change Impact on Eastern Washington Agriculture,” Climatic Change 102, no. 1 (September 1, 2010): 87, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-010-9851-4.
