ONLY ON ABC-7: Climate impacts on Borderland Farmers
Our climate is changing although it is not obvious in the grocery stores local farmers are trying to keep up with changes in the weather pattern. Agriculture has always been dependent on the weather with local farmers in need of sun, warmth, and rains to reliably produce the food that we eat. Keith Deputy is the President of Deputy Farms and has farmed for over 40 years. He grows pecans, cotton you name it. ” It’s tough to work in the weather. Whether you drive a tractor or irrigate it’s very difficult.” Deputy said.
According to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration increased heat stress during specific phases of the plant life cycle can increase crop failures. Deputy said, ” The cold and the lack of heat have affected chili, cotton and pecans, corn and almost all the crops that are being grown here.”
He said local farmers do what they can to prepare for Mother Nature’s wrath. They just deal with the severe weather as it comes. According to Climate Central, temperatures are on the rise. Since the late nineteenth century, global temperatures have risen by a little more than 1.8 °F (-16.78 °C) — it may seem like a small number but it has an after effect. America’s fastest-warming cities are– Las Vegas, El Paso, Tucson, and Phoenix which have warmed more than any other cities in the country. National Weather Service El Paso, Warning Coordination Meteorologist Jason Laney says everything that happens affects our climate.
“The numbers don’t lie! Last year the numbers were higher than they have ever been.” Laney said when we talk about climate change we have to talk about global warming. “We’ve had a different looking spring and it looks like we are in for a more active Monsoon Season as well.”
He stressed that based on heating and cooling degree days the numbers have increased. El Paso hasn’t seen a record low temperature since 2011.
