Perilous
Times and Climate Change
Climate change is rapidly drying up water supplies for
farmers: UN
by Staff Writers
Rome (AFP) June 9, 2011
The UN food agency on Thursday warned climate change will restrict
the availability of water for farming in decades to come,
including in the Mediterranean region, and urged governments to
take action.
A report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said
climate change will reduce river runoff and aquifer recharges,
adding that the loss of glaciers "will eventually impact the
amount of surface water available."
The report said that in Asia "large areas of irrigated land that
rely on snowmelt and mountain glaciers for water will also be
affected."
"Heavily populated river deltas are at risk from a combination of
reduced water flows, increased sanity and rising sea levels," it
added.
FAO also found that while increased temperatures will lengthen the
growing season in northern temperate zones they will reduce it
almost everywhere else, leading the yield potential and water
productivity of crops to decline.
It said governments should improve the ability of countries to
measure their water resources, as well as encourage farmers to
change their cropping patterns to allow earlier or later planting
and reduce their water use.
"Farm size and access to capital set the limits for the scope and
extent of adaptation and change at farm level," the report said.