Rising temperatures are seriously affecting crop production in Brazil and may lead to a migration of farm lands to more temperate zones.

An article on Bloomberg outlines the implications for the global community with Brazil as the world’s top soybean exporter and leader in sugar and coffee production.

A study co-authored by Hilton Silveira Pinto, climate researcher at the University of Campinas, shows Brazil’s soybean production may drop by as much as 24 percent and wheat output as much as 41 percent by 2020 as climate change reduces areas where the crops can grow.

Much of Brazil’s tropical agriculture “already operates at the upper limit of heat tolerance,” says the article and coffee, soybean, corn and livestock have all been hard hit by continuing droughts and high temperatures.

In addition to new drought-resistant crop varieties, the government is promoting agroforestry systems whereby trees provide shade that reduces temperatures and maintains humidity. But agroforestry might not be possible on the scale that is required to transform the way crops such as soybean and corn are grown.

“You can’t apply this technology overnight,” says Caio Rocha, Brazil’s secretary for agriculture policies. “We’ll have to show farmers that it’s in their financial interest to do so.”

Read the full story: Farmers Seeking Heat Relief Signal Brazil Climate Peril