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Food Security
The findings of the Intergovernmental Panel Climate Change ( IPCC ),
show that even if emissions be reduced to below half of 1990 level
by 2050, a temperature rise of up to 2oC above
pre-industrial levels will be unavoidable. This rise of 2oC
will aggravate various security risks with increasing global
warming.
However, if left unmitigated, a temperature rise of more than 2oC
will lead to unprecedented climate scenarios. It is likely to
trigger a number of tipping points that would lead to irreversible
and unpredictable climate change, affecting natural environment and
nearly all sections of society and economy.
Tropical cyclones, more frequent and intense floods and droughts coupled
with increasing
water stress,
soil degradation, more pests and weeds due to warmer temperatures,
will reduced the area of arable
land. Overall effect is the drop in agricultural productivity.
Hike in fertilizer prices further drives farmers
to resort to forest clearing for new fertile lands, leading to
food insecurity and social
conflicts, and further exacerbate climatic disasters.
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Climate change will
worsen the living conditions of farmers, fishermen and
forest-dependent people who are already vulnerable and food
insecure. Hunger and malnutrition will increase. Rural communities
dependent on agriculture in a fragile environment will face an
immediate risk of increased crop failure and loss of livestock.
Mostly at risk are people living along coasts, in floodplains,
mountains, drylands, and the arctic. In general, poor people will be
at highest risk of food insecurity due to loss of assets and lack of
adequate insurance coverage.
About 830,000 people currently require
emergency assistance.
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Africa is one of
the continents most affected, including food shortage,
brought about by climate change because of the multiple
stresses and low adaptive capacity. Stresses include
increasing drought, water scarcity, land overuse, soil
degradation, sea-level rise, soil salinization, social
conflicts and over population.
These have
raised concerns from international organizations. The
president of International Fund for Agricultural
Development, IFAD suggested:
5
key areas for addressing food security issues:
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Increasing agricultural productivity through
drought, heat and salt resistant crop varieties,
capacity building and technology transfer;
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Increasing water productivity and savings;
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Combating
desertification and land degradation through projects for
soil and water conservation and re-vegetation;
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Monitoring of natural resource use,
and capacity building for
sustainable land management
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Improving infrastructure, such as roads,
financial services, marketing services and price
information services; |
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Engaging youth in the agricultural and
agro-processing and trading sectors to reduce
unemployment and raise education levels. |
African farmers given
drought tolerant maize variety
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Maize is the most widely grown
staple crop in Africa with more than 300 million
dependents.
70% of people in Africa rely on agriculture for
their livelihoods and food security. Maize cultivation
in
Africa have been under constant
threats of drought as
three-quarters of the world’s severe droughts have
occurred in Africa over the past 10 years.
Droughts
lead to crop failure, food price hike, hunger,
undernourishments
to the poverty-stricken Sub
Saharan African Continent and many countries in the
world. One of the fundamentals to realizing food security lies in
the development of
drought-tolerant
crop varieties which are also high yielding. This could
be attained through biotechnology.
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Equally essential
is the ability of the small-scale farmers to adopt
integrated crop management practices, supported by the
strong political will of the government to mitigate
drought impacts.
Currently in Africa,
there are many international organizations working in
close collaborations
with the long-term goal to solve
food security issues:
Water Efficient Maize for Africa
(WEMA) partnership to address the effects of drought in a
cost effective way to African smallholder farmers;
African
Agricultural Technology Foundation,
AATF, to contribute project management
expertise, technology stewardship
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
to provide high-yielding maize
varieties that are adapted to African conditions,
Monsanto to provide proprietary germplasm,
advanced breeding tools and expertise, and
drought-tolerance transgenes developed in collaboration
with BASF;
Agricultural research systems, farmers’ groups, seed
companies in Africa
A Project that targets to give African Farmers
Drought Tolerant Maize - Africasciencenews.org Jan
2009
Stress-tolerant rice for
poor farmers in Africa and South Asia
Project has received approval for funding by the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
through a grant to the International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI) and
the Africa Rice Center (WARDA)
for US$19.9 million.
Currently, more than a billion people worldwide
live on less than a dollar a day and nearly one
billion live in hunger. Over the next 50 years,
the population of the world will increase by
about 50%. About half of the world’s population
consumes rice as a staple cereal, so boosting
its productivity is crucial to achieving
long-term food security.
In
addition, the project aims to build the capacity
of researchers and seed producers and promote
the exchange of stress-tolerant rice varieties.
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A new strategy to
genetically engineer rice and other crops to
make them more tolerant of drought, salt and
temperature stresses, while improving their
yields, is being reported by molecular
biologists at Cornell University, headed by
Ray J. Wu, and Ajay Garg, Cornell professors of molecular
biology and genetics.
Photo and information origin: http://www.news.cornell.edu
Growing
in the same
salty soil conditions, the rice plants at
left were genetically modified by Cornell
biologists to produce trehalose sugar and
resist environmental stresses, while the
"normal" plants, at right, were not.
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Photosynthesis, by which plants use solar
energy to convert carbon dioxide into
carbohydrates for growth, varies among plant
species. Rice species, have a relatively
inefficient mode of photosynthesis (known as
C3). Others like maize and sorghum, have a
more efficient mode known as C4.
Photosynthesis C4 is 50% higher than that of
C3 crops.
IRRI is using modern molecular tools in its
research to converting the photosynthesis of
rice from C3 form to the C4 of maize, to
increase yields by 50%. |
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Africasciencenews.org: Multimillion dollar
rice project |
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C4
(from maize) to replace C3
in Rice |
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The Cornell biologists
showed stress tolerance by introducing the genes
for trehalose synthesis into Indica rice
varieties, which represent 80% of rice grown
worldwide. They envisage the same strategy to
work in Japonica rice varieties, and a
range of other crops, including corn, wheat,
millet, soybeans and sugar cane.
(Pic: Cornell molecular biologists Ajay Garg,
left, with 'normal' rice, and Ray Wu, with
transgenic rice grown under the same
environmental stresses.) |
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They are
placing the new technology in the public domain
to make seeds for stress-tolerant crops
available worldwide.
Project
is expected to increase rice yield of the poor
farmers in Africa and Asia by 50%, over the next
10 years, benefiting at least 18 million
households in the long term.
The same plants in simulated drought conditions,
with the modified stress resistant version on the right.
Photo and information origin: News.cornell.edu |
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New Challenges!
While
the increased productivity with new crop varieties
increases grain yield and partially help to mitigate
food shortage, it has led to nutritional problems.
The high-yield varieties are usually low in minerals
and vitamins. So, many people in the food stress
areas of Africa and Asia, while having been spared from
starvation might in the long run, become vulnerable
to mineral deficiency- related illnesses.
The new
varieties require continuing application of
hazardous pesticides and environmentally damaging
fertilizers. The need to reduce these inputs to
achieve more
sustainable agriculture
thus pose a new challenge in the hunt for a solution
variety.
References and Sources
of Information:
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