Millions of farmers in Africa’s Great Lakes region face rising temperatures. Study predicts how crop disease and pests could spread
Publish Date: 2026-05-12 09:57:00
Source Domain: theconversation.com
Farming in the Great Lakes region of Africa (which includes Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Kenya) is challenging because of changing environments and ongoing social and political tensions. These tensions include conflict over resources. As a result, agricultural productivity is low and there’s a high rate of food insecurity there.
It’s difficult for farmers to manage their farms well when they don’t have enough high quality seed and then also experience extreme weather conditions like floods, drought and heat waves. Armed conflict and crop diseases and pests make the situation worse by damaging crops. Losses to disease and pests are often higher in low-input agricultural systems, where there is limited access to agricultural infrastructure and inputs like fertiliser and pesticides, as is common in sub-Saharan Africa.
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We then used machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence, to see how these pests and diseases may spread when the climate warms more. We wanted to identify high-risk locations and potential shifts in particular pathogens and pests under climate change scenarios.
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