Global warming troubles Peruvian Potato Farmers

For the first half of his life, potato farmer Gregorio Huanuco used the same formula that had dictated the survival of his ancestors for generations.

Huanuco, 48, waited for rains to fall on his small parcel of land to sustain his crops of potatoes as well as various tubers and quinoa. When ripened, his family ate what they needed and sold the surplus in the nearby central city of Huaraz.

But by 1990, Huanuco began noting strange climatic patterns in this village of 500 residents at 11,000 feet in the Andean Cordillera Blanca. They included battering hailstorms, months without rain and warmer winters. By 2005, the quirky weather became more consistent and included a fungus that blanketed his potato crops. Huanuco now worries about earning enough to put food on the table and buy school books for his three children.

"Before, we planted all year long, any month we wanted to,"Huanuco said while eyeing a tiny potato plot. "Now we only get water a few times a year and cannot plant as much, and the pests and diseases keep coming."

Most climatologists blame global warming for Huanuco's woes.