Global warming and food security

Subject: Environment

Concept :

Food Security

• Food security means having a reliable and safe access to nutritious and affordability. According to Food and Agriculture Organisation food security has three dimensions.

                   Food availability.

                   Food accessibility.

                   Food absorption.

• Global warming affects all the dimensions of food security like food production, food access and food absorption.

Affect on food availability

• The availability of food depends on the productivity of food crops. Globlal Waming affects the rainfall pattern, increases the severity of drought which in turn affect the productivity of crops.

Impact on rainfall

• Global warming place additional stress on food production as it affects inter and intraseasonal variation of rainfall.
• According to estimates of World Bank for an average of 4-degree increase in temperature, there can be a 10% increase in annual monsoon intensity and 15% variation in precipitation. This decline in precipitation patterns is not uniform as this can cause drought in northwestern parts of India and southern India will experience more rainfall.

Affect on groundwater

• Global warming will affect the replenishment of groundwater severely. As Indian agriculture depends heavily on groundwater it will impact productivity. Changes in climate have led to drying up of wetland and degradation of other ecosystems.

Affect on food availability

• Global warming affects the variation in the length of crop growing season and increases the incidences of extreme events which can cause the slowdown in output and can drastically affect incomes of small and marginal farmers thus impeding their access to food.

Affect on food absorption

• Global warming can lead to the reduction in nutritional quality of foods (reduced micronutrients like zinc and Iron) due to elevated Carbon dioxide levels. In India where pulses are the major source of proteins (In the west it is meat) which can lead to Hidden hunger which increases the risk of acquiring other infectious diseases.
• It can also lead to the rise in vector-borne diseases like malaria, dengue, and chikungunya. High incidence of undernutrition due to climate change reduces the resilience of the body to adapt and leads to reduced immunity thus affecting the demographic dividend of India to demographic disaster.