How climate change could bring orange groves to Britain

Crops that would become easier to grow include citrus fruits, chickpeas, black-eyed peas, soybeans, durum wheat and okra

Growing oranges could become a realistic prospect in the UK as warmer temperatures spread north. AFP

The UK could soon be producing its own hummus due to climate change, which could allow it to grow new crops such as chickpeas but make British staples like strawberries harder to produce.

Warming temperatures are expected to create significant challenges for farming worldwide. Researchers sought to find out how rising temperatures would affect British agriculture. Looking at a database of 167 crops, they built a model which factored in the optimum temperature, rainfall and soil types for growth.

They compared this data with different future scenarios – a world that is 2°C warmer than the pre-industrial period and another which is 4°C higher. Scientists predict on the world’s current course temperatures will fall somewhere in the middle of the two.

If the global average temperature reaches 2°C warmer than the pre-industrial period, conditions will become more favourable for almost all the crops currently grown in the UK, with the exception of two, including a British favourite – strawberries. Other crops that would become easier to grow include citrus fruit, black-eyed peas, soybeans for tofu, durum wheat for pasta, and okra.

A farmer harvests strawberries on the outskirts of Lahore, in Pakistan. AFP

“Only onions and strawberries show regional decreases at plus 2°C [of warming], and these are potentially offset by increases elsewhere,” wrote the researchers, from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

“Even under plus 4°C of warming, no current major crops show uniform decreases in suitability across all UK regions, although strawberries come close, showing declines in three of the four regions.

“However, the north-south contrast becomes more marked, and regional decreases or plateaus in suitability are apparent for more crops, including major cereals wheat and oats.”

However, several crops, including chickpeas, the main ingredient of hummus, could be grown more abundantly.

“Among the greatest increases under climate change, especially under the plus 2°C scenario, were those shown by crops that are currently only grown within a limited area of the United Kingdom. like chickpea, sunflower and grape,” the researchers said.

The UK produced its first commercial crop of chickpeas in Norfolk in 2019, a year when up to 20 tonnes of the legume were grown by four farmers across the UK. Hodmedod, a Suffolk-based pulse specialist, said at the time the company was focusing on two categories of chickpea varieties – kabuli, used to make chickpea flour, and desi, used to make chana dal and gram flour.

A Palestinian vendor prepares hummus plates for customers in Gaza. AFP

India is the world’s main producer of chickpeas, producing about eight million tonnes annually, according to Worldmapper. That is more than three times the amount harvested by Australia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Turkey combined.

Chickpeas have even been grown in space. Chickpea seeds sent to the International Space Station in 2022 germinated in nutrition-filled gel, suggesting a potential way to provide food for astronauts in the future.