Global warming cuts crops, ups famine

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=138106§ionid=3510212


Scientists have warned of the effect of global warming on rice yields, saying climate change will make it harder to feed the world's growing population.

A group of scientists studied records from 227 farms in six important rice-producing countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, India, and China and found out that the yields have fallen by 10-20% over the last 25 years in some locations, BBC reported on Monday.

In a similar study in 2004, researchers in the Philippines discovered that the rice yields were dropping by 10% for every 1 degree centigrade increase in nighttime temperature.

According to the findings, global warming is cutting rice yields in many parts of Asia, and still more decline is predicted.

This is while the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has announced that one billion people are already hungry in the world and as the result, the UN has established an online petition to tackle the world's hunger epidemic.

However, scientists are very pessimistic about the future of cutting yields.

In another study on fully-irrigated farms that grow "green revolution" crops, researchers found compelling evidence for dropping of rice yields.

The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that as the daily minimum temperature increases, or as nights get hotter, rice yields drop.

"There have been some recent studies on US crops, in particular corn, that showed the drop-off after that threshold is substantial," the lead researcher Jarrod Welch of the University of California, San Diego said.

According to environmentalists, warmer climates will bring changes to rainfall, causing drought, adding to famine and hunger.