Not Enough Food or Water in the Future?

The world of tomorrow is being meticulously crafted through scientific breakthroughs, life-altering innovations, researches and discoveries to make lives better, easier and pleasant. Furthermore, while nations are busy setting geopolitical positions, managing economic stability that means business and spending billions on building defense systems; worldwide, platforms and stages are being set by ‘agents of change’ to meet global challenges like climate change, unsustainable land use and exploitation of earth resources, that threaten future life survival and environment. Impending threats of food security and water scarcity beyond territorial borders have brought the world together to give a clarion to action.

Climate change is responsible for the increasing shortages of food and water around the world. It is affecting food and water supplies on a global scale.

“Food will become scarcer, grocery prices will spike and crops will lose their nutritional value due to the climate crisis,” states a report Climate Change and Land on land use from the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released on August 8. Experts highlighted how vagaries of climate, extremities of weather conditions, rise in global temperatures, desertification, population growth, linked to increasing pressures on land, risked jeopardizing food security for the planet.

"A report presented by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the EU finds that around 113 million people in 53 countries experienced acute food insecurity in 2018, compared to 124 million in 2017. Additional 143 million people in another 42 countries are just one step away from facing acute hunger. "

If you think water would solve the crisis of food security, think twice? Glaciers and ice caps that account for nearly 70% of the world's freshwater are melting rapidly. Billions will face water shortage due to this as rivers flowing from them will begin to dry up. Desertification and severe droughts are having an impact on agricultural production, while rising temperatures translate into increased crop water demand.

India is running out of water. Water resources have been mismanaged for decades. Critical groundwater resources, which account for 40% of India’s water supply, are being depleted at unsustainable rates. Droughts are becoming more frequent, creating severe problems for India’s rain-dependent farmers, states a NITI Aayog report.

Climate change has a negative impact on the land like soil erosion and desertification. Land degradation makes it less productive, restricting what we can grow and change what kinds of crops farmers can cultivate. According to the report, worldwide nearly 500 million people live in the areas that face desertification. Drylands and areas that experience desertification are also more vulnerable to climate change.

The IPCC report highlights that climate change is affecting all four pillars of food security: availability (yield and production), access (prices and ability to obtain food), utilization (nutrition and cooking) and stability (disruptions to availability). However, it finds ways to manage risks and reduce vulnerabilities in land and the food system.

Besides, the report records that about one-third of food produced is lost and wasted. Reducing this loss and waste would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve food security. Dietary changes and ensuring a variety of crops to prevent further land degradation would increase resilience to extreme or varying weather. Also, reducing inequalities, improving incomes, and ensuring equitable access to food are other ways to adapt to the negative effects of climate change.

Water is essential for ecosystem balance and food security. In view of limitations on its availability and rising demand, sustainable management of water resources, efficient and optimal utilization of water and recycling has acquired critical importance and a sense of urgency for Sustainable development.

(Representational images: source)