Even as US President George Bush blamed the increasing prosperity of Indian middle class for global food shortage and rising prices, the World Health Organisation has said that global warming and climate change were causing large scale loss of agricultural productivity aggravating malnutrition and micro-nutrient deficiency in the country.
According to the WHO, Himalayan glaciers are shrinking due to global warming at the rate of 10 to 15 meters per year, which would affect the water supply in India. River Ganga is expected to lose two-third of its July to September flow resulting in change in the productivity of arable land.
These changes will in turn affect one-third
of India's irrigated land. Water shortage will affect more than 500 million people. Large scale losses in agricultural productivity may in turn give rise to malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, it said.
"Cereal prices have been projected to increase more than three fold by 2080 as a consequence of decline in net productivity, due to projected climate change. Food insecurity and loss of livelihood are likely to be further exacerbated by the loss of cultivable lands and nursery areas for fisheries by inundation and coastal erosion in low lying areas of India," the WHO has predicted, adding that global climate changes and variability will give rise to malnutrition among children.