Climate Change: More Hunger Where Food is Already Scarce

In a cruel twist of fate, climate change is likely to undermine food production In the developing world where food is already scarce, while industrialized countries could expect a boost in production potential. The reason for this, according to Jacques Diouf, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General, is that crop yield potential is likely to increase at higher latitudes for a 1 to 3°C increase in global average temperature depending on the crop, and likely to decline for even small global temperature rises at lower latitudes, especially in the seasonally dry tropics. Communities in semi-arid and sub-humid regions that depend on rainfed agriculture are mostly at risk.

Whereas the Green Revolution has provided a solution to global food shortage in the past three decades, the next 30 years will be the turn of new technologies. These new technologies can supplement conventional breeding approaches to enhance yield levels and nutritional quality, increase input use efficiency and reduce risk. But Diouf pointed out that most genetically modified (GM) crops cultivated today were developed to be herbicide tolerant and resistant to pests. Traits valuable for poor farmers, especially within the context of climate change, such as resistance to drought, soil acidity and salinity, are sometimes being overlooked.

"I cannot sufficiently underline the need to also address the needs of resource poor farmers in rainfed areas and on marginal lands," said Diouf. "Ensuring that new biotechnologies help achieve this goal, in full awareness of biosafety, socio economic and ethical concerns associated with the use of some of these technologies remains a challenge for the entire scientific community."

Read the news article at http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2007/1000646/index.html.