Opinion | As heatwave in India, Pakistan exacerbates global food crisis, countries must hasten move to climate-smart agriculture
- The effects of the war in Ukraine on global food supplies have been compounded by crop losses in India and Pakistan
- Countries must help farmers adapt to climate change with, for example, drought monitoring systems and climate-smart staple crops, while also adopting low-emissions agricultural technology
Prolonged spells of record-breaking temperatures close to 50 degrees Celsius, which have been linked to 90 deaths, have also brought moisture stress during the wheat harvest and ahead of the next planting season.
In response, the affected countries must manage the impacts of climate change as far as possible, but it is down to the rest of the world – especially the Global North – to reduce emissions and minimise the extreme conditions to which we must all adapt or face the consequences.
To protect global food systems for future generations, countries must support producers to adapt to what is already inevitable – higher temperatures, water stress and unpredictable seasons – and prevent the impact from becoming even worse.
For India and Pakistan, this means developing and adopting robust agricultural mechanisms for coping with climate hazards, from heatwaves to flooding and landslides, including systems to better anticipate extreme conditions.