Climate change and Food Security

Food has always been proved to be a turning point in survival of any civilization. Food security is one of the major concerns which can be felt globally. The issues relating to food security are rising day by day due to increase in population, reduction in agricultural land and climate change. Major concern is Global warming and climate change, which are having immediate effects of agriculture and lifestyle.

We live in a world where an estimated 805 million people sleeps hungry each night. We are producing more than enough food to feed global population, but the problem is more than one third of food produced on our planet does not find a table. This is because either food gets spoiled in transit or is wasted by consumers in wealthier countries who tend to buy more than actually needed. In short we can say that nearly 1.3 billion tons of food gets wasted worth nearly $1 Trillion at retail price. The energy used in production of food till reaching the consumer generates more than 3.3 Billion metric ton of carbon dioxide. If we consider food waste to be a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after USA and China.

A recent study says that global worming could reduce world’s food production by 18% by 2050, but the investments in infrastructure and irrigation, and moving food outputs to different regions might reduce the loss. Global system of irrigation must be expanded by more than 25% to cover up changing rainfall patterns. If climate change is managed properly, then food production can be increased by 3% till 2050 as the higher concentration of carbon dioxide has fertilizing effects on plants.

It is to be noted that meat production is a major contributor to climate change. It is estimated that livestock production accounts for 70% of land use and occupies 30% of world’s land surface. FAO has estimated that livestock production is contributing around 18% of greenhouse gases.  If we talk about chemical farming, it uses considerably more energy per unit of production as compared to organic farming. The use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers in farming produces nitrogen oxide which is approximately 300 times more powerful then carbon dioxide in absorbing atmospheric heat.

Recently a study done by Australian scientists concludes that swamps and wetlands could be 50 times more effective then rain forests in storing carbon. Researchers found that swamps holds up to one third of carbon found in terrestrial soils, and occupies only 4% of planets land surface. Since 1990, around 50% of wetlands have been destroyed for urban development and farming, which is also an alarming condition.

Genetic resources have to play a critical role in feeding the world. Since climate change is advancing faster than expected, it is required to preserve and utilize the biological diversity that underpins the world’s food production. Climate change and food production are interlinked and taking care about climate, food production practices and food management can only help in future food security, otherwise our coming generations would face difficulties in survival.