Climate Change: A Major Threat to India's Food Security


BANGALORE: It is already a well known fact that the world today is highly affected by climate change where every continent and ocean, posed an immediate and growing risks for people all over the world. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change proves this fact further in a latest report released in Yokohama, Japan. Out of many countries likely to affect, a developing nation like India where nearly 50 percent of its population depends largely on monsoon for its agricultural works, climate change can be disastrous and may further threaten the country’s food security.

India will likely witness more severe natural calamities like last year's flash floods in Uttarakhand and cyclone Phailin in Odisha if steps are not taken to control the rise in temperature, the report predicted. Not just this, the recent hailstorms in parts of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh that destroyed crops like wheat, gram, cotton, jowar, onion and vineyards in over 12 lakh hectares of land led to consequent farmer suicides. This, in a way points towards IPCC's prediction of climatic chaos in the country.

The report further revealed that global warming threatens food and water supplies, security and economic growth, and will worsen many existing problems, including hunger, drought, flooding, wildfires, poverty and war.

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