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As I see it | Asia must embrace technology to overcome food supply shocks brought on by climate change
- Gene-editing, fewer pesticides and drought-resistant crops could help the 450 million farmers producing over 80 per cent of the Asia-Pacific’s food
- Observers say ‘there is no magic wand’ but urgent action is needed as rice, wheat, maize and soybean yields look set to drop by 20-40 per cent by 2050
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Why you can trust SCMP
The father of India’s green revolution, M.S. Swaminathan, once famously said: “If agriculture goes wrong, nothing else will have a chance to go right.”
A blistering heatwave and patchy monsoon rains in Asia have reinforced this claim, as food prices remained stubbornly high for months due to inclement weather and supply shocks from the Russia-Ukraine war.
Millions of tonnes of unharvested rice have also been affected by unusually heavy rain in central China’s Henan province this week.
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For the second year in a row the region is experiencing extreme weather, which shows climate change is happening here and now.
02:34
World likely to breach 1.5°C global warming threshold sooner than we think, meteorologists warn
World likely to breach 1.5°C global warming threshold sooner than we think, meteorologists warn
That’s bad news for everyone, but it’s probably worse for the food insecure Asia-Pacific where 450 million small farmers produce more than 80 per cent of what the region eats. By 2030, Asia will be home to the world’s largest middle-class population, with food spending expected to reach more than US$8 trillion.
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