Importing maize helps stabilize domestic food prices and could help tackle cost increases resulting from rising yield variabilities due to climate change, researchers in the US have found.
Data from 27 net-importers of maize across Africa, Asia and Latin America since the turn of the millennium indicate that the variability in maize price could rise by 10% by mid-century due to climate-induced supply shocks. But this rise could be offset by a 10% boost in those nations’ ratio of imports to total consumption.
“International markets act as a source of stability rather than a source of risk,” says Bowen Chen of Kansas State University, US. “This is at least the case for maize.” […]
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