How has Green House Effect Contributed to the Food Crisis across the World?
Food is an essential part of people’s life. Its craving starts from the moment they were born and remains till the moment you die. If not taken in regularly, the body starts to weaken until you ultimately die from starvation.
A food shortage is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop catastrophe, population disturbance, government policies or climate change (i.e. global warming).
This occurrence is usually followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, plague and increased death rates. Every continent in the globe has gone through a period of famine throughout history. Some countries in continents like Africa are still constantly facing malnutrition and food shortage because of their geographical location.
In recent years, the intensity of the food shortage in the extreme poverty and population zones has amplified extensively. This is because of the problem of greenhouse-effect giving rise to global warming.
Why I Chose This Topic?
Food shortage is a global issue; but one of the countries that is most affected is India. The situation is worsening as the time goes on. This is mainly affected by uneven cycle of rainfall and decrease/increase of the temperature. The rising of the food prices have caused food shortage in my country. So I want to know that is it really the global warming that is affecting the production of crops across the world?
The Essay on Global Warming Countries Temperature Definition
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Global Perspective
Fluctuations in the world’s climate will cause major shifts in food production. In some countries, temperatures will rise and rainfall will decrease; in others, rainfall will increase. In addition to this, coastal overflowing will decrease the amount of land existing for farming.
Due to the enormous doubts surrounding global climate change, estimates of cropland declines differ widely–from 15% to 50%. But this is considerably clear: greenhouse-effect is likely to vary production of wheat, rice, soybeans, corn and potatoes which are stapled food for billions of people and most consumed food crops in both Africa and North America.
The food shortages that have affected the world from time to time have mainly been caused by crop failures water shortage and rising temperature. The core reason these failures are now intensified is because of the extreme climate that has been caused by the greenhouse-effect.
Climate change will disturb some areas more than others. The 2 most affected areas by the crisis were South Asia and Southern Africa where temperature fluctuations and drops in precipitation are cutting yields of the main crops grown there. Both of the two regions were predicted to warm up to 2ºC by 2030. Besides, temperature and rainfall patterns fluctuate in every year and in every region, regardless of long-standing drifts in climate. Precipitation and temperature changes brought by climate change will likely interact with plant pathogens, atmospheric gases, weeds, fertilizers, insects, and the soil’s organic matter to create unexpected responses.
The graph above (Fig. 1.1) shows that there was a sudden fall in production of rice in the Asian countries especially Indonesia. But globally, there is minor threat as there is a slight decrease comparatively to the status Asian countries.
Despite these variations, average global temperature escalation of slightly more than normal would extend the frost-free budding season in the Corn Belt by more than two weeks. But, if temperatures continue to surge beyond a definite verge, fruitful summer growing season of the crop could become shorter, thus decreasing the production.
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National Perspective
India ranks 98th out of 118 countries on the global hunger index with more than 214 million people going starving and mal-nourished. India is far away from solving poverty and hunger issues stated in “millennium-development goal 1”. India suffers from a high population problem and that is why the effect of food shortage on the country is worse than other countries.
The most affected area is Madhya Pradesh which is the 2nd largest state situated in the exact centre of the country. In 2008, the Indian State Hunger Index stated the state of Madhya Pradesh in “extremely alarming category.”
The graph below (Fig. 1.2) states that the temperature in India has been raised to 27ºC from only 20ºC which is a drastic change over a short period of time. The increase has taken place in the northern zone. As per the research, the optimum temperature needed for “Rice” to grow is 20ºC to 21ºC. The picture below (Fig. 1.3) is also showing that the water is gradually decreasing from each zone in India. This is directly affecting the production of rice in India. Not only rice, but all other crops are affected but this temperature change and this rapid dehydration. The graph above (Fig. 1.1) shows that there was 1.5 million tone decrease in overall rice production in India in year 2010. As per the facts above, we have to agree that India is facing a food shortage and is also being affected by global warming.
India harvests 87.6 million tons rice from 42.4 million hectares and on the other China produces 178 million tons of rice from a mere 29 million hectares. There is only one big difference; China incorporated ‘hybrid rice’ technology in a big way, while India had a slow start. Global Warming’s effects on food supplies can be reduced by using genetically modified rice grains. These grains are resistant to high temperatures and give larger yields than the original crop.
The hybrid way of agriculture is in progress to solve the shortage in India. But it is not that easy problem to solve. India is a land of diversity where people also grow crops as a way of business and to survive. The people who grow cash crops are able to afford the hybrid seeds but the people who survive on their land are not able to afford the seeds. India is making progress eradicating this crisis but it is not enough for the country to overcome the problem!
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Local Perspective
Gujarat is a state situated in the far western side of the India. South-west Gujarat is one of the most fertile places in India with longest coastline. The winds from the ocean are humid and bring moisture; this keeps the land well-irrigated. The food shortage problem in South-west of the Gujarat is not so overwhelming but global warming has widely affected the crop yields of the farmers in East and North Gujarat by lowering the annual rainfall more than 40% in over 1 years of time. This is a drastic change over a short period of time.
A Farmer’s Point of View
Bharatbhai Javiya is a farmer who lives in the town of Anand situated 75kms away from the city of Ahmedabad. He has lived in the town from the day he was born. He owns 20 acres of land in a village 1km near the town. Bharatbhai claims that the changes in climate have affected his annual crop yields. Bharatbhai produced about 3 tons of wheat-grains per 1 acre when he first got involved in agribusiness in 1980s. After the year 2001, he started realising that the grain production was going down gradually due to less rainfall/ irrigation and a rise in temperature. In 2007, he suffered a great loss when the climate transitioned. But later in 2008, there was a sudden rise of prices in the market as there was too less production of cereals in Gujarat. Bharatbhai had a very rich harvest that year which led to a boost in his profit. That was the only year after 2001, that he had that huge profit. In 2010, he started using hybrid cotton, rice wheat seeds. Since then, the yields have been increasing.
Fortunately Gujarat is still not suffering from a critical food scarcity even if there was a massive decrease in the rainfall; as the government of Gujarat has promoted schemes on cheap GM (Genetically Modified) crops and subsidies on digging any kind of a ground water irrigation system. The east and the north town have put this schemes functional and are not to be seen suffering from a critical food shortage. But this does not mean that the crisis is fully over-come; but means that the problem is less.
The Essay on Global Water Shortage Problem
Water shortage is a global problem by William 8H Water shortage is a problem worldwide - A combination of climate change and poor resource management is leading to water shortages in even the most developed countries. In London, leaks from water mains are wasting 300 Olympic swimming pools worth of water every day whilst southern parts of Europe is becoming drier as a result of climate change and ...
Possible Scenarios
* The dilemma that climate change has caused has been documented to death such to the extent that people have become invulnerable to hearing about holes in the ozone layer and the melting icecaps. For some reason it seems people still cannot grasp the seriousness of the situation and how these changes will affect their lives and the lives of their successors.
* It was estimated that in 2010 13.6% of the world’s population was undernourished. This is astonishing, however what is even more astounding and worrying is “that it is estimated that our global population will double in the next ninety years”. This means more people to feed with even less resources than now due to the rapid effects of global warming such as desertification, higher temperatures and rising sea-levels.
* These exposures beg to question how it will be possible to provide for double the amount of people that are alive now when we cannot even provide for the current number of people adequately. The horrible truth is that realistically we will not be able to. That is of course unless we try to make a change now.
* There is no point in lying and saying we can undo the harm we as a population have already caused, because we just cannot. However, we can prevent further damage and prolong the time we have before we have to face this crisis.
Personnel Perspective
I think that if food shortage is not solved before it’s too late, there would be serious consequences in the future when it would be impossible to come up with a solution then. So as I have researched the consequences of this crisis, I would waste very little food myself and would try to aware people of this problem and try to eradicate it as much as I can!
Possible Courses of Action
* Conservation
* Africa and North America and lose about 30 tons of soil per hectare every year, and important volumes of nutrients and other vital minerals that are washed away with that soil. This decreases the crop yields to 15% to 30% due to loss of minerals in the soil.
The Term Paper on Pp Presentation Food And Water Supplies
PP Presentation Food and Water Supplies (1) Ever since declaration of independence in 1804, the economic situation in Haiti has been steadily worsening, which is one of the reasons why this country is being considered as the poorest in the world for many decades. This does not make much of a sense, especially given the fact that Haiti used to be the most economically thriving country in the world, ...
* Furthermore, optimum soil organic matter, minerals and water-holding capacity are reduced as soil erodes. When soil and water preservation schemes are followed, erosion rates can be condensed to only one ton from one hectare every year which can increase crop yields 5% to 15%.
* Improving Crop Varieties-
* Planting of one crop over-and-over again due to low precipitation would reduce yields, but crops such as cassava, millet, sorghum, or wheat, sweet potato, which have minor precipitation requirements, could be switched.
* But, the harvest per hectare would be lesser than the original and the crops’ nutritional value would be lower.
* Genetic engineering could be used to develop new seed varieties that require less moisture; drought tolerance is a multigenic characteristic therefore the yields would be difficult and basic photo-chemical reactions in plants require enormous amounts of water.
* Underground Water
* Digging deep wells/bore-wells bring out the underground-water to accumulate in it and the water is drawn up by a motor and spread out the land to provide water to the crops.
* In some places like Gujarat, there are subsidies provided for making a bore-well in the farmlands. This has been a one of the most successful agricultural practices in India.
Personnel Response
As an individual there is very less that I can do about the problem. My native place is the village of Ishwariya 90kms away from Rajkot City. There, the government is supplying farmers with subsidies and seeds to grow crops. I can petition the government to supply the farmers there with hybrid seeds and provide the farmers with more subsidies.
Bibliography
http://bilgrimage.blogspot.in/2012/09/global-warming-food-shortage-and.html (Blog)
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080131-warming-crops_2.html (National Geographic Documentary)
http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/10634/20120705/global-warming-foot-shortage-predictions.htm (Article on Food Shortage)
http://www.livescience.com/14447-global-food-shortage-urgent-climate-global-warming.html (Research)
The Essay on Genetically Engineered Crops Yan Nutrition Food
"Genetically Engineered Crops: Their Potential Use for Improvement of Human Nutrition" was written by Dr. Lin Yan and Dr. Philip S. Kerr. The focus of the article was to discuss research being done to help feed the increasing world population with new scientific discoveries that have been made since World War Two. The most monumental discoveries have been the discovery of "chemical processes to ...
http://www.environmental-action.org/blog/food-shortages-expected-worldwide-thanks-global-warming (Blog on Climate Change)
www.pecad.fas.usda.gov (Picture)
www.manicore.com (Picture)
http://www.gujaratweather.com/wordpress/?p=143 (Picture)
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/-india-should-embrace-hybrid-rice-to-fight-food-shortage-/15440/2 (Newspaper Article)
http://ciesin.columbia.edu/docs/004-138/004-138.html (Scientific Report by Professor David Pimentel from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York)
(News Paper Article)
http://ournewclimate.blogspot.in/2012/04/future-food-shortage-crisis.html (Blog for Future Food Crisis)
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/10/03/al-gore-denied-film-footage-rights-by-an-australian-filmmaker/ (Blog)
http://bootheglobalperspectives.com/article.asp?offset=0&id=530 (Article)
