Global warming, besides threatening to wipe out several species from the planet, is also warning a major part of the global population to starve to death – yes, the alarmingly climate change is threatening the world’s rice cultivation, the major sources of food of more than half the world’s population.
The climate change is remarkably throwing out droughts in various parts of the world, with still many more parts being predicted to get even drier.
While on the other hand, it will not just inundate many other parts of the world but will also shift the rainfall distribution – a foreseen ill-effect for the world’s rice fields.
To add to the problem for rice cultivation, the climate is becoming more and more unpredictable with time.
The globe has been predicted to warm by 0.2 degrees Celsius every 10 years! This is far higher than the 0.6-degree Celsius rise in the past century. This would lead to serious consequences for the production of food, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change informs.
So, to battle against the prevailing and forthcoming change in the world climate, scientists are resorting to various other artificial ways to maintain the weather and climate needed for the rice to grow, interestingly be it –
Wrapping the paddy fields with tarp and blasting them with cold air from air conditioners, or
Growing 2,000 rice varieties inside giant metal cabinets, with the seedlings sprouting above styrofoam trays. The trays are soaked with varying degrees of brine for stimulating the seawaters threatening to deluge the rice-growing areas over the next century.
Though these ventures by the Chinese scientist Peng Shaobing and his Indian colleague plant geneticist Kumar Singh may apparently seem crazy for the time being, these would, in future, surely ensure half of the earth’s mankind with one of the world’s most important crops — the rice-diet.
