Asian Development Bank (ADB) warned that more than 1.6 billion people in South Asia, particularly in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal, could face acute water and food shortages from the melting of the Himalayan glaciers as a result of climate change. The retreat of the glacier from the Himalayas would trigger floods, droughts and erratic rainfall that could lead to crop failures.
Analysis of the current trend suggested that by 2050, the climate-induced heat and water-stress would phenomenally lower the yields of irrigated crops – maize (17%), wheat (12%) and rice (10%). The resulting food scarcities will shoot-up food prices and reduce the calorific intake across the region.
Almost half of the world’s absolute poor live in South Asia, where they tend to depend in rain-fed agriculture and live in settlements that are highly exposed to climate variability said ADB. Some of the measures discussed to tackle the problems are agricultural adaptation techniques, investments in irrigation expansion and water resources management, farm-to-market roads, and agriculture research and dissemination to reduce the region’s vulnerability to climate change.
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