Global warming jeopardises agriculture in China and India

Top scientists from China and India recently warned that the two countries - constituting more than one third of the world's population - face a future of sharply lower crop yields as a result of climate change.

Yields from rain-irrigated wheat could drop by 44% by 2050 under warmer conditions forecasted by climate models, the Indian farm scientist M.S. Swaminathan said during the 97th Indian Science Congress last week.

Swaminathan is regarded as the architect of India's ''Green Revolution'' for his work in the 1960s developing high-yield grain varieties that ended decades of severe famine.

India continues to suffer from high inflation in food prices and widespread chronic hunger. Such problems will worsen if global temperatures continue to rise, Swaminathan said.

For every one degree Celsius rise in mean temperature, the wheat loss is estimated to be in the order of six million tonnes per year, he said. India's total wheat production was about 75 million tonnes in 2009.

Meanwhile, China could face a similar climate-induced grain crisis, Zheng Guoguang, director of the China Meteorological Administration warned.

China should put adaptation as top strategy in addressing climate change and put enhancing grain production and ensuring food security as priority, the China Meteorological Administration stated.

Global warming emissions from China and India continue to rise and will account for about 34% of global emissions by 2030 - up from 13% in 1990, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

India and China will be crucial for any global treaty to restrain emissions, but the recent Copenhagen accord, which both countries endorsed, only urges - but does not require - steep emissions cuts.