Climate Change Issues are hurting agricultural productivity in Barbados and other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

That’s the conclusion of a new study conducted by three researchers and just released by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Michee Arnold Lachaud (University of Connecticut), Boris E. Bravo-Ureta (University of Connecticut and University of Talca, Chile), and the IDB’s Carlos E. Ludena investigated the impact climatic conditions had on productivity and output in agriculture.

They said the study’s main finding “is that climatic variability has negative impacts on production and productivity”.

“These adverse impacts are significant and vary across countries, sub-regions and regions.

On the basis of information from the fifth assessment report from the [Inter-Governmental Panel On Climate Change], climatic variability will reduce productivity across [Latin America, and the Caribbean] in the scenarios considered.

“Specifically, our forecast revealed that between 2013 and 2040 climatic effects can be expected to decrease productivity …