FLORENCE, Nov 3: Prophetic warnings of how global warming will play havoc with the world’s agriculture appear to be coming true. High temperatures and water shortages have reduced crop yields across southern Europe, according to European Union experts.

Maize and sugar beet production has been cut by a quarter in Italy, while wheat yields have fallen by a third in Portugal, said the report from the EU’s Joint Research Centre in Brussels.

Output has risen in northern Europe, which is part of this pattern. Warmer weather had boosted sugar beet yields by a quarter in Ireland and by up to 5 per cent in Denmark and Sweden, while oilseed rape output in Finland had risen by 12 per cent.

The pattern almost exactly matches predictions of the effects of global warming over the next century, “New Scientist” magazine said. Jorgen Olesen, of the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Tjele and Marco Bindi of the University of Florence in Italy forecast just such a shift in productivity last year.

Their analysis predicted that agricultural output will soar in northern Europe as the region becomes warmer, wetter, and crop growth is fuelled by increased carbon dioxide levels. But in southern Europe the forecast was for droughts and lower crop yields.—dpa