SILENT SCOURGE RAVAGING OUR FOOD

JUST a month ago, COP30 placed extreme heat, collapsing harvests and rising health risks at the centre of global climate negotiations.

- SANJAY K SRIVASTAVA

For India's farmers, the summit delivered urgent lessons and a narrowing window for action.At Belém, the focus shifted decisively towards people not just the planet. It was a long-overdue acknowledgement that climate change is no longer a distant environmental threat but a daily stressor eroding livelihoods, productivity and well-being. Nowhere is this more visible than in agriculture, where extreme heat is emerging as the most pervasive and least insured climate risk.

Scientific assessments show how heat stress is quietly but relentlessly reshaping agrifood systems. Labour capacity is declining, livestock productivity is falling, perishable produce is spoiling faster and staple crop yields are suppressed as nighttime temperatures rise.

This reality is already playing out in India's farms and mandis. Over the past decade, heatwaves in the country have become longer, hotter and more geographically widespread. Wet-bulb temperatures where heat and humidity combine to threaten human survival have approached dangerous thresholds across Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and coastal Karnataka.

Heat-related declines in wheat and rice yields are no longer anomalies. Irrigation costs are surging as soils dry faster. Milk production has dropped in heat-stressed districts. Farmers increasingly report dehydration, kidney strain, dizziness and cognitive fatigue symptoms consistent with global research on chronic heat exposure.