Agriculture is lost because the earth warms

International experts believe that urgent action is needed to ensure that the climate is warmer, not to reduce crop yields, not to increase the risk of starvation or to aggravate poverty. The most vulnerable area in the world.

A crop grown on drought- prone soil (Photo: NOOA, TTO)

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said the El Nino phenomenon with moderate intensity in the tropical Pacific Ocean could continue to cause weather fluctuations by 2007.

The meteorological agency said in the past October, sea surface temperatures in the Central and Western Pacific regions were 1 to 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than normal temperatures and this situation could It will last three months before it ends in June 2007.

El Nino episodes that have previously appeared are often accompanied by droughts and typhoons in Southeast Asia, raining in parts of South America and Eastern Africa, while winters in the US and Canada are hot. warmer.

It is known that El Nino is an unusual periodic weather phenomenon discovered by South American fishermen since the 19th century near Christmas.

Speaking at a recent meeting of the International Agricultural Researchers Advisory Group meeting in Washington, NASA's Cynthia Rosenzweig and co-chair of the international group on climate change, said: "Climate change is not only in the future. It is happening now."

The group has gathered experts from 15 agricultural research centers around the world funded by countries, international organizations and private organizations.

To date, the threat of global warming is a familiar risk: many scientists believe that increasing global temperatures, which have become serious due to burning fossil fuels, will make gas warmer, wetter and more harsh

It is thought that this will cause sea levels to rise and threaten the lives and livelihoods of millions of people, especially in coastal areas.

But agricultural and food experts meeting at the group's annual meeting this week focused on how climate change will impact crop harvest.

Warming can cause more droughts and shorter growing seasons in places like Tanzania that increase flooding in coastal areas of countries including Bangladesh and reduce crop yields in countries like Colombia.

Robert Zeigler, general director of the International Rice Research Institute, said global warming could increase potato production in the northern hemisphere but reduce yields across Africa, South and East Asia as well as the North South America, where potatoes are the main crop and people are increasingly likely to be hungry.

Experts say the first measure to deal with that threat is to conduct more research to produce climate and season reports that can inform decision makers. .

SN