How to achieve food security in the face of climate change?

Climate change is a multifaceted problem, it affects our world in so many ways that not changing our ways will cause multiple problems in many different industries, and may cause millions of deaths worldwide. It is an ever-growing snowball that as time passes will create bigger problems and lead to a greater destruction. It will destroy our economies, our energy industry, and most importantly, our agriculture industry. The poorest places in the world, the places where they do not have the resources to combat these problems, will be hit the hardest. It will affect all aspects of food security. With the changing climate will cause very different weather conditions in the parts of the world that grow many of the global foods. There will be increased temperature, a decrease in rainfall, and a large variability in the extreme climate events in the world. There will be an increase in sea levels, flooding some farms on coastal towns (3). Because of these changes in climate, there will be a global decrease in food production, there is expected to be -17% in yield for wheat in Africa and a -16% in yield for maize in South Asia (3). Because of this decrease in production, food prices are bound to increase. This will cause even greater food insecurity in developing countries. Developing countries rely heavily on agriculture for income. With the change in food production, they will be affected greatly. They will have to compromise on their diet, increasing malnutrition and hunger in these countries where food security is already a problem. For wealthy countries, they will be able to adapt because they have the money to implement change, and they do not heavily rely on food production as they can import many of their food needs (1). So, there will become an even greater gap in food security between the wealthy and poor countries, and with the poor countries not being able to invest in adaption techniques, they will continue to struggle even more. We need to begin to adapt our farming practices to coincide with the changing climate. The two main changes should be an improvement in soil management and water management. With decreased rain fall, the need to use the limited amount of water effectively will become important. Improving our soil management techniques will help many aspects of food production and climate change. We will be able to store the increasing amount of carbon in the atmosphere, mitigating the effects of climate change, and will help prevent losses of water, nutrients, and soil when extreme events do occur. Not all hope is lost yet, according to a study done in Mali “The potential benefits of these adaptations are enormous: losses due to climate change are reduced by one-third if some adaptations are adopted, but if all are adopted the gains more than offset the losses – cereal production actually rises, food prices fall, and the incidence of hunger declines to 21 per cent of the population” (2).

There are large benefits of improving our soil management on food production. By using soil carbon sequestration techniques like cover cropping and agroforestry, we will be able to solve many of the issues caused by climate change in agriculture. It can become a carbon sink for the large amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, and carbon helps photosynthesis, increasing yields. It can also help prevent erosion of soil and water, and with that help decrease nutrient leaching. By implementing these techniques, we can improve the efficiency and productivity of our croplands, helping increase food security. Adding cover crops or trees can help in the issue of erosion. “In Montana, as ground cover decreased from 100% to 1%, erosion rates increased 200 times” (5). The amount of soil lost in the US alone is staggering, 3 billion tons per year, costing us $37.6 billion in loss of productivity (5). A large amount of crop residue is stripped from the land and used as biomass for things such as fuel. However, if they were kept in the ground, they can help improve soil quality and prevent erosion (6). Especially since biofuel is inefficient, the benefits of keeping this residue is greater. When removed, it opens the soil to erosion, due to roots not being able to hold the soil. The decomposing of these crops also helps improve the soil quality, decreasing the need of fertilizer, which further decreases the ecological footprint of farming. This technique is especially important in the tropics, where there is a large decrease in nutrients in the soil. “Nutrient deficient soils produce 15 to 30% lower crop yields than uneroded soils” (5). Agroforestry is another option that has many of the benefits of cover cropping. There is also the possibility of the trees creating a microclimate, and with the increase in temperatures, this may improve crop production (6). The addition use of the trees for things such as wood and fruits increases the incentives to adopt this technique. Agroforestry decreased food insecurity during a drought in Kenya by 25% (6). Both techniques include many benefits that will help improve food production and therefore help improve food security worldwide.

In addition to all the benefits to soil, agroforestry and cover cropping improves water management within soil. There is only a finite amount of freshwater on this planet, and with the need to increase the amount of produce we are growing, we will need to be more efficient in our water use. In 1 ha of corn 5-7 million L of water is transpired, 2 million L are lost due to evaporation, 30% of total rainfall is eroded, decreasing the total soil water availability 20 to 40%, and decreases productivity 10 to 25% (5). The amount of water lost in agriculture, and the effects of this on the productivity of food needs to a major focus, especially when rainfall is likely to decrease due to climate change. Agriculture already uses 80% of the worlds freshwater, so with water becoming increasingly scarce, this will have a major effect on food security (7). There is estimated to be a need for 5600 km3/year of water, however only 2300 km3/year are available through water resources, so 3300 km3/year will need to come from the improved efficiency of water management (7). To solve this problem, we must adapt, especially in underdeveloped nations. We need to teach and implement water management strategies. By implementing strategies that improve yield production, we will not need to use as many resources to grow food, freeing up some of the water use. Completely changing our irrigation techniques, especially in developing countries where efficiency is extremely low, will help us prevent waste of water. Irrigation efficiency in countries such as the Philippians and India are as low as 25-40% (8). It may also become necessary to switch agriculture to places where the irrigation requirements will not increase due to climate change, as when there is a drought, it will require more irrigation than places where there will be increased rainfall. It is important to fix the waste of water, or the cost of water, a necessity will increase greatly, and will have many effects on food security such as dehydration and malnourishment.

There are many ways we can help adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change on food security. It will completely change the climate in many regions of the world, making it more difficult to produce in those countries. Adaptation will be expensive, but it must be done. Wealthier countries need to help invest in developing countries, where most of agriculture is produced. If developing countries do not change their ways, and when their productivity decreases immensely, they will be in trouble as agriculture is their main source of income. The economics of climate change will have a great affect worldwide, as price of basic foods will increase due to the decrease in supply. These adaptations must be done to save the planet, and through the changes in our irrigation techniques and soil management, we can help change the effects of climate change.

Reference List:

(1) Burke, Marshall, and David Lobell. "Food security and adaptation to climate change: What do we know?." Climate change and food security. Springer Netherlands, 2010. 133-153.

(2) Devereux, Stephen, and Jenny Edwards. "Climate change and food security." IDS Bulletin 35.3 (2004): 22-30.

(3) Wheeler, Tim, and Joachim Von Braun. "Climate change impacts on global food security." Science 341.6145 (2013): 508-513.

(4) Lal, Rattan. "Soil carbon sequestration impacts on global climate change and food security." science 304.5677 (2004): 1623-1627.

(5) Pimentel, David. "Soil erosion: a food and environmental threat." Environment, development and sustainability 8.1 (2006): 119-137.

(6) Mbow, Cheikh, et al. "Agroforestry solutions to address food security and climate change challenges in Africa." Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 6 (2014): 61-67.

(7) Hanjra, Munir A., and M. Ejaz Qureshi. "Global water crisis and future food security in an era of climate change." Food Policy 35.5 (2010): 365-377.

(8) Kurukulasuriya, Pradeep, and Shane Rosenthal. "Climate change and agriculture: A review of impacts and adaptations." (2013).