The number of people sleeping on empty stomachs will swell up to double within four decades owing to an acute shortage of wheat and rice grains due to global warming. Wheat yields in 2050 will be reduced by 30 per cent and irrigated rice yields by 15 per cent. The basic necessity of food will be a far cry for a large population, one third of which does’nt even get two square meals a day.

This disturbing concern came up at a three-day international conference on “Preparing agriculture for climate change” at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) here today, where eminent scientists from across the world gathered to discuss the impact of climate change.

Talking to The Tribune, Daniel Hillel, Professor Emeritus and senior research scientist, Columbia University, said it was about 7 billion population in the world and within a few years, it would reach 10 billions. With the depletion of natural resources, the soil would lose its fertility and hence the yield would be affected, he added.

“One third of the total population of the world is already hungry. The way the environment is being degraded for vested interests, the number will be doubled in coming years. There is an emergent need to protect the environment,” he said.

For farm scientists, to maintain energy efficiency is of the utmost importance. Land contained soil and soil emitted carbon is responsible for environmental degradation. “We need to build soil and not destroy in order to get food security for our future generations,” said Daniel Hillel.

Stating that the developing countries were more at risk of draughts and floods due to climate change, scientists, one after the other, expressed their concern over this and called for a need to manage the natural resources wisely.

At the same time, experts from Australia, Netherlands, Behrain etc stressed that improved crop, proper soil and water management practices and stress-tolerant varieties could overcome the detrimental impacts of climate change and these would also lead to benefits like improved food security, livelihood and healthy environment.