A new study highlights how climate change and rising temperatures could affect farming across Africa’s Great Lakes region, which includes Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Kenya. The research focuses on how warmer conditions may enable crop pests and plant diseases to spread across farms and regions, potentially increasing crop losses. The authors also link these risks to broader challenges already facing farmers in the area, including low agricultural productivity and persistent food insecurity. They note that farming conditions are shaped not only by environmental change but also by ongoing social and political tensions, including conflicts over resources. These pressures can reduce farmers’ ability to adapt, manage outbreaks, or respond to changing pest and disease patterns. The report argues that understanding likely pathways of pest and disease spread is important for protecting future food supplies. Overall, sources present the same concern: rising temperatures could intensify agricultural threats in the Great Lakes farming belt, with implications for regional food security.