1115. Global Drought Overview

At the end of September, the European Union published a report on the state of drought in the world.

A severe drought is currently affecting much of South America, southern Africa, the Zambezi Basin, the Mediterranean Sea and Eastern Europe. Heat waves and warming are exacerbating the effects of a lack of precipitation. Soil moisture and vegetation conditions have been severely impacted, with a negative impact on agricultural productivity across large areas of the world. Crop damage and losses have raised concerns about an urgent food security crisis.

In addition to the strong positive conditions of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole, as well as the warm conditions of the tropical North Atlantic, climate change has been pointed out as a possible major contributor to the extreme heatwaves in the regions mentioned above.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maintaining the resilience of agriculture in the face of climate change is the diversity of crop genetic resources. On October 11, we will host a special symposium for Dr. Cary Fowler, winner of the 2024 World Food Prize, for his significant contributions to the conservation of crop genetic resource diversity.

Symposium with Dr. Cary Fowler, 2024 World Food Prize Laureate – Dr. Fowler’s Journey to Preserve Genetic Diversity and New Mission for Africa’s Adapted Crops and Soils
2024-10-11(Fri) 14:00～16:30 (Doors open at 13:30)(JST)
Yayoi Auditorium, University of Tokyo (Hybrid format)
https://www.jircas.go.jp/ja/event/2024/e20241011

Reference
TORETI, A. et al, Global Drought Overview September 2024, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2024, https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC139423 

Contributor: IIYAMA Miyuki, Information Program