Factors which can affect food production
Weather
Droughts
Tropical storms
Floods
Climate change will make hurricanes and tropical storms more intense; have stronger winds and cause more destruction of farmland and infrastructure. Ocean temperatures will rise and cause the storms to have a higher energy
Heatwaves
Crop failure and reduced water quality and quantity; drought leads to soil erosion, gullying, subsidence, rockfalls and weathering. Drought is predicted to increase in frequency and duration.
La Niña - normal conditions
Around christmas time in coastal Peru they make a lot of money as lots of fish come in the upwelling of cold water currents and bring plankton; prevailing wind east to west along the equator and warms up and is travelling towards Australia
El Niño - ocean current and prevailing wind switches so warm water over to Peru and plankton/fish doesn’t come so warm air rises (low pressure) as hits Andes it cools and condenses and brings unstable air and intense rainfall
It can disrupt the weather all around the world and it is happening more frequently (a recent example is hurricane Katrina
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As the climate warms, there will be more heavy rainfall events; this will lead to flooding which will destroy crops, disrupt food production, erode soil and damage infrastructure
In the UK, 35,000 ha of high quality arable land will be flooded at least once every 3 years by 2020s; 58% of UK most productive farmland lies within a floodplain
Climate Change
Food production is driving climate change and accounts for almost 1/3 of greenhouse gas emissions (CO₂ from deforestation, land clearance, methane from intensive crop and livestock production)
The food system will be modified due to climate change:
- extending/reducing growing seasons
- increasing frequency of droughts, wildfires and river and coastal floods
Farming can be a sink for carbon
In ACs permanent set aside land can sequester large amounts of carbon if left unmanaged or reforested
World wide heatwaves that occurred every 3 years are now happening every 200 days
Water Scarcity
Tectonic Hazards
Increased frequency of extreme weather events destroys crops and infrastructure which then disrupts the distribution, exacerbates poverty and threatens food security
<1% of all water is available for human use
Agriculture is the largest water user and consumes 68% of the water drawn from lakes, rivers and aquifers
Of the water available for agriculture, up to 60% is lost due to poor irrigation systems and high rates of evapotranspiration
Australia is a large food-exporting country
It's volume of international trade in wheat, meat and dairy is sufficient to alter global prices
Water insecurity in Australia is often driven by El Niño and brings periodic droughts which disrupts river flows in the Murray-Darling Basin (Australia's largest river system)
Put in water-efficiency measures, including a cap on the amount of water exported from major rivers, withdrawal of subsidies for irrigation and trade in water between farmers
Kenya requires appropriate technology to adress it's water scarcity; initiatives include:
- mulching; laying plant leaves in between rows of cultivated crops to reduce soil erosion and retain water
- drip irrigation; reduces the loss of water by evapotranspiration by directing a slow-moving supply of water to the base of the crops
- training farmers in water-harvesting technology
Virtual Water
Importing water intensive food products relieves the pressure on domestic water resources
Pakistan has offered farmland to water-scarce Gulf states; this puts a risk on the food security in Pakistan
The major virtual water exporters are Australia, USA and Brazil
The major importers are Japan and South Korea
Volcanic ash can have economic, social and environmental consequences on food production
Ash falls destroy pasture land so livestock need to be provided with all their feed
If the ash is consumed by animals it can cause flurosis as ash contains fluorine; In 1996, 2,000 animals died on the pasture land near Mount Ruapehu in New Zealand
Ash falls can increase sulfur levels and lower the pH of soils to such an extent that crops can no longer survive
Mount Etna, 2002, light ash fall adhered to the skin of citrus fruits and the crop was destroyed as it was deemed too expensive to clean the fruit before it was processed; 1/2 the orange crop in Catania was destroyed, 80% of the vegetable crops and 75% of seasonal harvesting jobs were lost
It was estimated to have cost the region €140 million
The impact on food distribution is a secondary impact and is more likely to affect remote communities where there are poor tranport links
Earthquake in Afghanistan, 1998, helicopters were provided as part of foreign aid operation to distribute emergency food aid as the area is mountainous and there are many rural villages whose transport links and bridges were destroyed
Earthquake in Nepal, 2015
- The quake killed over 8,000 people and left 35 million people in need of emergency food aid
- In the immediate aftermath, the FAO appealed to get disaster aid to help the farmers resume rice planting ahead of the growing season
- Many farmers missed the planting season from May onwards and were unable to harvest the rice (staple food in Nepal)
- Stocks of wheat and maize were destroyed
- Livestock were killed
- Machinery was damaged or destroyed
- Widespread damage to roads, bridges etc. meant that markets couldn't function
- Farmers suffered a loss in income and the government couldn't afford to reimburse them
- Vital irrigation and drainage channels were damaged #