The Hindu : 'Global warming will hit rice, wheat yields'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 02, 2002

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'Global warming will hit rice, wheat yields'

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI MAY 1 . Responding to findings that global warming will have an impact on Indian agriculture resulting in up to 30 per cent drop in crop production by 2050, the Government today said that adaptation strategies and resource-conserving technologies were being evolved for sustainable farm development and improved productivity through low cost mechanism. Current climate models predict a global warming of about 1.4 to 5.8 degree centigrade over the present century. This was likely to have an impact on rice and wheat yields.

Inaugurating the South Asia Expert Workshop on `Adaptation to Climate Change for Agricultural Productivity', the Agriculture Minister, Ajit Singh, said projections of reduced crop yields were of grave concern, taking also into consideration the growing food demand on account of urbanisation and industrialisation. "An important priority, therefore, is to ensure that developing countries gain access to technological advances and develop a more informed choice of policies and practices.''

He said the Climate Conference, which is to be held in New Delhi later this year, must address the linkages with sustainable development and the increasing risks of the adverse impacts of global warming. "South Asia, with its large population, low incomes, fragile ecosystems and dependence on agriculture and allied activities is particularly vulnerable to climate change and its adverse socio-economic effects. One-fifth of the world's population, much of it among the poorest, lives in this region. It is estimated that the impacts of climate change in the future would be borne disproportionately by the poor.''

"In any global debate on environment, poverty eradication and food security had to be a central issue. In tropical Asia, countries are socio-economically dependent on natural resources such as water, forests, grassland, rangeland and fisheries, which are currently under tremendous stress. Agricultural productivity is greatly affected by rapidly shrinking per capita land, increasing soil degradation, reduced availability of water coupled with surface and ground water contamination, increasing deforestation and desertification.''

He said there was no room for complacency despite a record foodgrains production of over 211 million tonnes as the rain-fed areas in the country still suffered from low yields and instability of production.

The Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Klaus Toepfer, pointed out that the developing countries would bear the brunt of climate change and its negative impacts. The consequences could be wide-ranging affecting crop yields, soil fertility and agricultural zones. Plant species and metabolic pathways were among the important determinants of how crops would respond. Studies indicate that heat stress and temperature-driven inhibition of flowering cause significant decline in production for main crops i.e. rice and wheat. The region's water resources may be influenced by temperature change, precipitation and tropical cyclones. Climate change shall have impact on hydrology exacerbating water stress, and increased run-off may result in water-logging and salinity. "But instead of despairing, countries must strategise and adapt their policies to mitigate the effect of climate change,'' he said.

The Chairman of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Director-General of Tata Energy Research Institute, R.K. Pachauri, said in any case, India should go in for `No-regrets' policy options to face the impact of climate change on agriculture. These should include breeding of new crop varieties and species that are heat and salt-tolerant and low-water crops.

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