Climate change in the Andes and its impact on agriculture: a systematic review

Abstract

In recent years, agriculture in the Andes has shown greater sensitivity to climate change, favoring processes of soil erosion, retreat of glaciers, loss of vegetation cover, increased intensity of rainfall and alteration in the dynamics of crops in the region such as: potato, quinoa, corn, among others. This motivated many authors to develop regional model simulations to estimate the vulnerability index of these agricultural systems to these climatic events, allowing them to provide a more reliable climatological data in the presence of hot and dry winds. In this review article, the main contributions provided by various researchers regarding the impact of climate change on Andean agriculture are detailed. According to the collected information, it is concluded that climate change in the Andes will cause countries such as Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana and Colombia, to increase their local temperature, potential for evapotranspiration and water scarcity, causing the loss of important crops such as rice. In contrast, countries such as Peru, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Uruguay will register lower temperatures that will affect their production and yield in crops such as quinoa, potatoes, tarwi, among others.