Suman Sahai
The world is demanding more food each day. This is
principally due to the demands of a growing population but also because people
by and large are getting wealthier and want more and better food.
Coinciding with this growing demand for food is the
phenomenon of climate change which has already begun to threaten food output
and reduce the amount of food available. These two simultaneous developments
are threatening the stability of the global food system.
On the one hand climate turbulence , chiefly floods and droughts slash away the
expected harvests of major staple foods like rice, wheat and corn so that there
is less available. On the other hand, a ‘getting wealthier’ class of
people in both developing and developed countries is wanting and able to eat
better, especially meat and other animal products like butter, ghee, cream,
cheese etc.
All this is putting a lot of pressure on the land,
leading to more and more intensive farming practices, using chemicals to
extract the maximum out of plants and animals. So you have an overdosing of the
land with chemical fertilisers to put in chemical nutrients rather than allow
natural organic nutrients to build up in the soil.
Along with this comes the excessive use of toxic chemical
pesticides to kill the pests that follow intensive chemical farming because
their natural predators that keep them in check are dead.
As our own experience with the South-west Monsoon shows us,
the weather is getting increasingly uncertain. There are floods and droughts in
unexpected locations, at unexpected times. Climate shocks, particularly
droughts which are becoming more frequent now and occurring in unlikely
locations, have caused the most upheavals in global food supplies.
The American Midwest is the world’s greatest producer
of maize and soybean. The drought of 1988/89 swept through the maize-soya belt
of the US. This resulted in a loss of 12% of global maize supply, which meant
maize eating food importing countries had lesser maize to import at higher
prices.
The widespread drought of 2002/03, hit wheat production in
Russia, Europe, India and China, resulting in a 6% reduction in global wheat
supply. At the same time, the 2002/03 drought hit rice production in India ,
causing a decline of 4% in rice output. When there is a shortfall in global
food stocks, the biggest casualties are food importing countries that are
dependent on imported food.
India, and other Monsoon dependent countries, are
particularly vulnerable to climate turbulence because a disturbance in the
rainfall timing and pattern and the total amount of water received during the
Monsoon period is a significant factor in India’s food self-sufficiency.
The health of the Monsoon essentially determines the amount
of rice, India’s major staple food, that will be produced. India’s Monsoon
period has been on average 100 days long. This is the period during which the
country receives almost all the water it will get from rainfall.
The Monsoon period is already reduced by about 15 days so in
effect the total amount of water we are getting has also gone down by some 15
%. This is having serious implications already and the situation is likely to
worsen in the coming years.
So how do we cope with the impacts of climate change and
secure our food supply ? Well first, we need to get off the uniform,
monoculture, chemical treadmill because that kind of chemical based intensive
food production is the most vulnerable to climate shock. It also produces
unhealthy food, contributes to worsening climate change and pretty much wrecks
up the environment.
There are some important changes we need to make but let’s
start with a few. We need to get out our genetic diversity of crop plants and
deploy it.
If you have many varieties of rice in the field or of wheat
or potato, or maize or whatever, then you are quite safe. If some varieties get
destroyed because of unseasonal weather, others will survive, so you may have
less food but you will have food. If you plant only that one high yielding
variety backed up by chemical fertilisers and pesticides and that one variety
falls to climate turbulence, then you have no food. So diversity is
smart.
Invest in millets, instead of just rice and wheat as staple
foods in your kitchen. These little grains are nutrition bombs and can take on
the worst of climate change. The ‘big’ millets are Sorghum (jowar) and Pearl
millet (bajra). The ‘small’ millets are:
* Finger millet (ragi) High in calcium, and makes rotis and
snacks
* Barnyard millet. Called ‘sawa’ in Hindi. Once a staple,
it’s now eaten during fasts and is rich in iron
* Foxtail millet. Can be cooked like rice and made into
upma
Then there are the fibre and mineral rich millets:
* Kodo millet Little millet (kutki in Hindi)
* Proso millet (cheena in Hindi).
All of these are now quite easily available in the market
and can be cooked in different ways for tasty, nutritious meals. So start
making some changes in the food you bring home
Source: https://www.thecitizen.in/opinion/food-security-in-troubled-times-962233?infinitescroll=1
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