How we need to combat malnutrition by tackling climate change

Climate change has been deemed a long-term threat to food security and nutrition.

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The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that globally by 2050, the risk of hunger and malnutrition could rise by 20% if the right mitigation measures are not adopted.

In India alone, as of March 2023, more than 14 lakh children have been reported as severely malnourished. According to research, children residing in districts with a very high degree of climate vulnerability were more likely to be malnourished than those residing in districts with very low vulnerability. This could significantly halt or even reverse India’s chances of achieving zero hunger by 2030.

HOW DOES CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECT AGRICULTURE

Research suggests that with rising temperatures, the yields of certain foods and cash crops in India are expected to decline - thus impacting food, nutritional security and poverty levels.

Climate change also threatens to disrupt the availability of water through a decrease in seasonal rainfall and an increase in extreme rainfall events, eventually leading to water scarcity.

This runs the risk of paralysing the production of important crops - with rain-fed agriculture accounting for 65% of all cultivated land in India.

This highlights the sector’s importance and fragility to water scarcity. Additionally, not only does climate change affect the production patterns of these crops, there is also increasing evidence of a marked decrease in their nutritional content.