Tea, Coffee, Wheat, Apples - For India, Time To Brace For Climate Impacts On Most Crops

[hatrack]

The unseasonal rain that has begun to fall on Karnataka every January and February hasn't affected coffee production very much — there's just a 5% dip in yield. But, it's entirely possible there will be discernible change in the quality of the coffee bean... and the coffee that you drink. Blame global warming? There's more.

Assam, which accounts for more than half (52 per cent) of all the tea India produces , last year grew 15 million kg less than the year before. Some of the tea reportedly tasted different — much weaker than the "strong" brew that Assam is famous for. And then there is Himachal Pradesh's main crop — the apple. The fruit grows on 90,000 hectares across the state but Himachal could lose as much as 25 per cent of that, as low-lying orchards at anywhere between 4,000 and 5,500 ft start to warm up.

Across India — from east to west, south to north — the effects of climate change are seen to be slowly becoming apparent. Karnataka coffee, Assamese tea and Himachal apples are just three on a lengthening list of crops that are affected by changing climate patterns. Maharashtra's grapes, Goa's mangoes and cashew nuts, Kerala's paddy crops and Haryana's wheat — are seen to be affected too.

It's part of a change that is sweeping the globe, which the United Nations ' Food and Agricultural Organization took note of in September. At the time, the agency's assistant director general, Hafez Ghanem, predicted a turbulent long-term outlook for food prices across the world because of more frequent extreme weather due to climate change.


EDIT

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/Basket-Case/articleshow/7388512.cms

[gateley]

1. I thought about Egypt while listening to some 'expert' explaining the shortage

of food and resulting higher costs. :(