Analysis: UK funding helps farmers growing bananas for Britain weather climate change storms

One example is Colombia which grows around a third (30%) of the UK’s bananas; 253m kilograms worth £169m in 2023. Colombia, along with other parts of the Amazon Basin, has experienced exceptional drought since mid-2023 [3]. As temperatures rise, so does the incidence of drought, floods, pests and disease, which reduces banana quality and yields. Without intervention, Colombia is predicted to become unsuitable for growing bananas. The UK, alongside other countries, supports banana farmers in Colombia via a project under the Green Climate Fund [4], which enables more efficient water use and the cultivation of varieties more tolerant to climate impacts, ensuring Colombian farmers can continue to grow them.
 
Commenting on the analysis, Gareth Redmond-King, Head of International Programme at ECIU, said: “Nearly two thirds of British people back the principle that this country can and should help those in poorer parts of the world whose lives and livelihoods are threatened by worsening climate impacts [5]. A clear majority also get that those impacts threaten the UK’s food security as well. We live in an interdependent world, with overseas farmers on the frontlines of climate extremes making a living by selling food to us in the UK. These are some of the people who are supported by investments that the British government is making abroad, along with other major economies such as Germany and France. If climate change impacts overwhelm them, their livelihoods are at stake and UK food security is jeopardised.”
 
Another example is Pakistan, which is the UK’s second-biggest rice supplier after India, providing 89m kilograms worth £94m in 2023. Pakistan once again saw deadly flooding this year [6] as climate change continues to turbo-charge monsoon rains. Dangerous prolonged heatwaves and high humidity also hit this summer [7]. Higher temperatures directly damage rice plants and also encourage pests and diseases like the khapra beetle. The UK supports farmers in Pakistan to grow rice, as well as other key export commodities like wheat, sugarcane and cotton, via several projects including one under the Green Climate Fund [8] that is building farmers’ capacity by training them in water management, intercropping, mulching, the cultivation of heat, drought and salt-tolerant crop varieties and integrated pest management (IPM).
 
UK international climate finance also supports the cultivation of other British foodstuffs including oranges, cocoa, tea and coffee, to name a few.
 
In the UK, climate change added £360 to the average household food bill  in the past two years (2022 and 2023) [9]. This number is likely to have increased given the impacts we have seen throughout 2024 so far.
 
Gareth Redmond-King added:
“As UK harvests of key crops fail due to wet weather linked to climate change[10], ‘back-up’ imports of key commodities are also wobbling under climate-driven extremes in several supplier countries [11]. Government support for climate resilient agriculture in the UK, through DEFRA’s Environmental Land Management Schemes, and overseas via climate finance help to maintain the UK’s food supplies.”