India may run out of food in coming years, reveals New global study
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NEW DELHI - India is among the countries which are at the greatest risk of food insecurity due to weather extremes caused by climate change, a global study suggests, PTI has reported.
Researchers led by the University of Exeter in the UK examined how climate change could affect the vulnerability of different countries to food insecurity — when people lack access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.
The study, published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, looked at 122 developing and least-developed countries, mostly in Asia, Africa and South America.
The countries at the greatest vulnerability to food insecurity when moving from the present-day climate to 2 degrees Celsius global warming are Oman, India, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Brazil, researchers said.
“Climate change is expected to lead to more extremes of both heavy rainfall and drought, with different effects in different parts of the world,” said Richard Betts, a professor at the University of Exeter.
“Such weather extremes can increase vulnerability to food insecurity,” said Betts.
“Some change is already unavoidable, but if global warming is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius, this vulnerability is projected to remain smaller than at 2 degrees Celsius in approximately 76% of developing countries,” he said.
