Impact of climate change on agriculture

‘‘When the well is dry, we know the worth of water” (Benjamin Franklin).

Climate change poses a challenge to our ability to ensure global food security, eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development. Greenhouse gas emissions from human activity and livestock are a significant driver of climate change. It has both direct and indirect effects on agricultural productivity including changing rainfall patterns, drought, flooding, and the geographical redistribution of pests and diseases. The vast amounts of CO? absorbed by the oceans cause acidification, influencing the health of our oceans and those whose livelihoods and nutrition depend on them.?

Agriculture production is extremely vulnerable to climate change, and its disruption will make it difficult to support the estimated world population in 2050. In India, climate change has about 4-9 percent impact on agriculture each year. As agriculture contributes?15 percent to India’s GDP, climate change presumably causes about a 1.5 percent loss in GDP. Thus, understanding how and to what extent climate change will affect agricultural productivity is crucial.?For example, heatwaves in the summer of 2010 led to yield losses in key production areas including?Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan?and contributed to a dramatic increase in the price of staple foods.?

These rising prices forced local people into poverty, and many went hungry for many nights. It has defeated the mandate of the?Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO)?where it says ‘all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Climate change affects all three aspects of food security:?availability, access, and absorption. When production decreases, the availability of food decreases. Climate change hits the poor the most. They don’t have the income to buy the food, so their access to it is affected. This, in turn, has an impact on health and affects absorption.

I firmly believe that human rights are means to a life of dignity. They are universal and inalienable; they cannot be given, nor can they be taken away. But I believe, if climate change is left unchecked it has the potential to disrupt our food chain and wipe out the development gains of recent decades.