Threats to global food supplies are on the rise as climate change and associated events ravage agriculture production across the globe. Crop harvests, food production and dairy outputs have been impacted by the spreading wildfires, scorching heatwaves, prolonged droughts and devastating floods.
In July 2023, top global rice exporter India had to ban the export of some qualities of rice to ensure the availability of the commodity for its own domestic population at an affordable rate. Rice is a staple for about half of the world’s population and prices for rice in Asia recently reached a two-year high as importers built up inventories.
According to a report by BBC, India exported 22m tonnes of rice to 140 countries in 2022. Among the major buyers of rice are China, the Philippines and Nigeria.
The catastrophic rains and the subsequent floods in China in July and August 2023 have inundated the country’s biggest grain producing province submerging crop producing areas.
Torrential rains and subsequent flooding across the country in July has devastated South Korea’s farmlands in the central region. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said extreme weather should be expected as the norm because of climate change.
A little earlier, Russia got out of an agreement that allowed wheat from Ukraine to be transported safely across the Black Sea.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the weather in southern Europe is so hot that cows are producing less milk and tomatoes are being ruined. Grain harvests will be much smaller too after struggling with drought.
A major fruit producing country of Europe, Italy, had to contend with a hard frost in the beginning of 2023. It was hit by torrential rains and record flooding, followed by an exceptional heatwave and hail storms, making it a disastrous year for Italy’s farmers.
In the US, conditions for growing crops were at their worst in more than three decades in June, before the Midwest region of the country got some rain relief.
According to Agriculture Canada’s most recent drought monitor report, 76% of the country’s agricultural landscape is either abnormally dry or experiencing moderate to severe drought this summer.
The recent confirmation about the arrival of the El Niño weather pattern is likely to cause further damage to agriculture production across the world.
The full extent of the damage will depend on how long the unfavourable conditions persist. All of this is renewing concerns about food security, food prices and inflation. M