Severe Drought Affects Five Million People In China

During the last week of August, numerous reports of drought in various parts of the world were reported. One of these unfortunate reports was in China wherein an estimated five million people are now experiencing severe drought which leaves their farms in serious condition. Unnatural drought like this can affect their crops and livestock—to much horror of Northern China’s local farmers and residents.

In this part of China where residents rely only on their produce for food and sustenance, having severe drought killing their crops is synonymous to hunger. When crops die, these farmers will have to find other ways to buy food and other living necessities. Wheat, which covers most farming lands are now in dire need of water as its soil is beginning to parch and wells are now rock dry.

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The Global Food Crisis of the Future

Biofuel production is on a rise but the global climate is getting worse and experts are warning of a food crisis not so far in human future. In fact, it has already started in many parts of the world and is expected to get worse if certain adaptations are not made in time. Mexico, West Bengal, Nepal, Jamaica, and sub-Saharan Africa, all show warnings of food shortage and/or problems with food supply to meet the public need of food commodities. At the same time, food price has been inflating in many countries at a rate of over 10% with the prices of wheat and maize soaring to a record high over the past few years; and dairy and fish are no exception.

Currently, the unbridled quest for biofuel production is seriously interfering with the food producing capacity of the farming sector in a number of places. In the US for example, as much as 20% of the total maize production went into making ethanol – biofuel for vehicles – while cutting petrol production by replacement with ethanol has already been raised in the US. Brazil and African countries are also inclined to give more of its food-producing land to biofuel production. In addition, even where uncultivable land is used for growing biofuel crops, large numbers of people are displaced, inviting social problems.

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