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As a scientist, I have been witnessing changing in Africa for the last 25 years and I have
seen it when I look at diseases and I look at insects transmitting these diseases; we
could sense, measure, quantify differences. We have seen what we call 'emergences' of new
viral diseases or reemergences of diseases, etcetera. So it is a fact. Now, physically
we know that in East Africa for example we already have 1 and 1.5 degrees in average
higher than we had in maybe in the past maybe 30 or 40 years. So these are facts. Now there
are groups of scientists busy predicting climate; as you probably know; but also scientists
predicting about how to grow a plant in a changing environment and we can make maps
of what is going to be the corn landscape in Africa today and the corn landscape in
2050 and the same for corn and the same for cassava or for soy beans, etcetera. So we
can do this map and when you do this exercise, the conclusion is very simple: it is going
to be very difficult that most of the crops that we have today, so the existing crops,
the existing plant that we have today will perform in general badly in thirty or forty
years from now simply because the elevation of the temperature, the changes in rain fall;
there will be too much water in some places and there will be drought in other places.
An exception is probably cassava and we know that cassava is what we call resilient to
global warming because cassava can grow at any temperature and can wait for better time
for water. But that said, we all know, all the scientists, we know that we are going to face a general issue about
how can we grow more food for many more people in Africa and in developing countries in general
knowing that the plant we have today will not perform as well or badly.