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1050. Addressing Water Shortages in Agriculture

1050. Addressing Water Shortages in Agriculture
In a future where the climate is predicted to be completely different from the present, water scarcity could have a significant impact on agriculture. On June 19, a spotlight article in the journal Nature highlighted the urgent need to address water issues in agriculture.
Looking back at the past, water scarcity has led to disasters such as dust storms in North America during the 1930s, droughts in Ethiopia in the 1980s, and more recently, in Australia in the early 21st century and in Syria, Iraq, and Iran in 2020. When rain is insufficient for several seasons, crops wither and livestock starve, triggering famines and conflicts.
Climate change makes the rainfall patterns on which farmers depend unpredictable. According to the IPCC, by 2100, the proportion of the world's population exposed to extreme droughts due to global warming is projected to increase from 3% to 8%, and people in low- and middle-income countries in particular are projected to face extreme droughts with a 3-degree warming compared to the pre-industrial period.
However, crops that have been grown in the same areas and livestock that have been grazed in the same places cannot be moved to a new location just because of a change in rainfall patterns. Therefore, producers — and the governments that are responsible for the food security of their people and economies through producers — must consider ways to ensure that agriculture, which is essential to humanity, can continue into the future. One way to do this is to improve the drought tolerance of crops or select crop varieties that can inherently survive in dry conditions.
Reference
How to address agriculture’s water woes, Water isn’t the only challenge facing agriculture in a climate-altered future, but a lack of it could have catastrophic effects. By Bianca Nogrady
Nature 630, S26-S27 (2024) https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02037-w
Contributor: IIYAMA Miyuki, Information Program