K.N. Ramachandra, Member, Mysore Grahakara Parishat writes
Global warming will reduce drastically the production of wheat and rice in India. Therefore, depending on these cereals for feeding India's ever-increasing population is a risky proposition. Millets (ragi, jowar, etc.) are quite tolerant of both heat and water shortage and so are the most logical choice to become the future staple diet of our nation. Agricultural research must be focussing on these grains, opined Dr. Satheesh Periyapatna, Director, Deccan Development Society, Hyderabad. He was speaking on "Rethinking Food & Agricultural Research" in a programme hosted recently by Mysore Grahakara Parishat and The Institution of Engineers (India), Mysore Local Centre
Global warming has already begun to reduce the world's food production. The temperature increase that occurred between 1981 and 2002 reduced major cereal (rice, wheat, etc.) crop yields by an annual average of 40 million metric tons. These are huge losses, but they are nothing compared to what is expected in the future. A recent study sponsored by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research forecast a 51% decline in India's wheat-growing land. Under Indian growing conditions, wheat is at the limit of heat tolerance. Any further rise in average temperatures during the growing season December-March will drastically affect yields. This can be devastating to the food security of our country.
Increased temperatures and the accompanying change in rainfall will have an even bigger adverse impact on rice production in India. It is estimated that a 2øC increase in temperature and the consequent change in rainfall will result in a 20% deficit in rice production.
In light of global warming, it is imperative that India look away from rice and wheat and focus more on millets as the foods of the future. Millets are not only better suited to the hotter and drier conditions expected in the future, they are also more nutritious than rice and wheat. But agricultural research in India has been ignoring these issues and is focussing mainly on wheat, rice (and cash crops) to the almost total neglect of millets. That is because, food and agricultural reasearch in India are being dominated more and more by multi-national companies such as Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, etc, whose main motive is profit and not the future food security of India. This should change, urged Dr. Periyapatna.