xfam is warning that climate change is causing many staple crops to fail throughout the world, causing widespread hunger in some of the poorest countries. Millions of farmers from South and Central America to Africa are struggling to adapt to drought and changing rainfall patterns.
According to Oxfam: “Climate change’s most savage impact on humanity is likely to be the increase of hunger.” Oxfam concludes that countries where hunger is already widespread “are at most risk from climate change”.
One area already suffering is Nicaragua’s Mosquitia region, one of the most isolated and underdeveloped places in Central America. The indigenous population survives by growing rice and beans, in addition to hunting and fishing. However, during the past 10 years, the pattern of rainfall has changed. Landslides and topsoil erosion have laid the riverbanks bare, resulting in widespread flooding. This has left communities unable to grow enough food to feed themselves. It is a story repeated across South America, sub-Saharan Africa and parts of south-east Asia.
Oxfam’s workers in 15 different countries say that the seasons have contracted in both variety and number. Rainfall is unpredictable, with an overall reduction in levels of precipitation. Winds and storms have increased in strength and frequency. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch left large swathes of South America under water. Unseasonal weather events, such as heavy rains, have become more common.
Oxfam states: “Once-distinct seasons are shifting and the rains are disappearing. Poor farmers from Bangladesh to Uganda and Nicaragua, no longer able to rely on centuries of farming experience, are facing failed harvest after harvest.” Least equipped to cope with volatile weather conditions are small-scale farmers whose harvest often feeds just themselves and their families.
Although conceding that reports of changing weather patterns are largely anecdotal, Oxfam’s programme researcher John Magrath said the result of his research is startling – “not least because of the extraordinary consistency it reveals from around the world. These include seasons becoming drier and hotter, as well as rainy seasons becoming shorter and more violent.”
Hardest hit are rice and maize, two of the worlds most important crops, and the staple on which hundreds of millions worldwide subsist. Maize yields are predicted to fall by 15 per cent across sub-Saharan Africa and most of India by 2020.
Publication of Oxfam’s climate change report was timed to coincide with this week’s meeting of the G8 in Italy, where Barack Obama will chair a session on the issue. The report warns that, without immediate action, the development gains achieved over the past 50 years will be eradicat
by Cary Gee
Oxfam is warning that climate change is causing many staple crops to fail throughout the world, causing widespread hunger in some of the poorest countries. Millions of farmers from South and Central America to Africa are struggling to adapt to drought and changing rainfall patterns.
According to Oxfam: “Climate change’s most savage impact on humanity is likely to be the increase of hunger.” Oxfam concludes that countries where hunger is already widespread “are at most risk from climate change”.
One area already suffering is Nicaragua’s Mosquitia region, one of the most isolated and underdeveloped places in Central America. The indigenous population survives by growing rice and beans, in addition to hunting and fishing. However, during the past 10 years, the pattern of rainfall has changed. Landslides and topsoil erosion have laid the riverbanks bare, resulting in widespread flooding. This has left communities unable to grow enough food to feed themselves. It is a story repeated across South America, sub-Saharan Africa and parts of south-east Asia.
Oxfam’s workers in 15 different countries say that the seasons have contracted in both variety and number. Rainfall is unpredictable, with an overall reduction in levels of precipitation. Winds and storms have increased in strength and frequency. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch left large swathes of South America under water. Unseasonal weather events, such as heavy rains, have become more common.
Oxfam states: “Once-distinct seasons are shifting and the rains are disappearing. Poor farmers from Bangladesh to Uganda and Nicaragua, no longer able to rely on centuries of farming experience, are facing failed harvest after harvest.” Least equipped to cope with volatile weather conditions are small-scale farmers whose harvest often feeds just themselves and their families.
Although conceding that reports of changing weather patterns are largely anecdotal, Oxfam’s programme researcher John Magrath said the result of his research is startling – “not least because of the extraordinary consistency it reveals from around the world. These include seasons becoming drier and hotter, as well as rainy seasons becoming shorter and more violent.”
Hardest hit are rice and maize, two of the worlds most important crops, and the staple on which hundreds of millions worldwide subsist. Maize yields are predicted to fall by 15 per cent across sub-Saharan Africa and most of India by 2020.
Publication of Oxfam’s climate change report was timed to coincide with this week’s meeting of the G8 in Italy, where Barack Obama will chair a session on the issue. The report warns that, without immediate action, the development gains achieved over the past 50 years will be eradicated.
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