The Impacts of Climate Change for Food
and Nutrition Security: Issues for India
Bill Pritchard
Abstract This chapter reviews current knowledge on the potential effects of climate change on food and nutrition security in India. It finds that India’s food
systems are highly vulnerable to climate change on a number of fronts. A key
finding emphasized in the chapter is that these effects will impact not just on
agricultural production arrangements, but on the wider food system through the
impacts of climate change on food prices, the composition of the rural economy,
and the potential effects of severe weather and sea-level rise. Despite efforts by the
Government of India, the nation remains inadequately prepared for the magnitude
of effects, should the worst effects eventuate. There is a profound need for further
research in India regarding the full food system implications of climate change,
particularly with respect to the adaptation needs of vulnerable communities.
1 Introduction
Assessing how changes to the global climate system will impact upon the ways that
humanity seeks to feed itself is an extremely difficult exercise. To do this requires
consideration of a huge diversity of variables, both ecological and social, which
interact in an uncertain and unpredictable fashion. Despite our best efforts, we can
merely speculate upon many of these interactions. This problem persists notwithstanding the major advances in the science and social science of this issue during
recent years, which form the basis of the landmark Chap. 7 (‘Food security and
Food Production Systems’) of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report of Working Group II (AR5-WG II) (IPCC 2014).
The aim of this chapter is to revisit knowledge about the potential range of
linkages between food security and climate change, and apply it to the contemB. Pritchard (&)
School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
e-mail: bill.pritchard@sydney.edu.au
B. Pritchard
International Visiting Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
S. Nautiyal et al. (eds.), Climate Change Challenge (3C)
and Social-Economic-Ecological Interface-Building, Environmental Science,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31014-5_2
11
and Nutrition Security: Issues for India
Bill Pritchard
Abstract This chapter reviews current knowledge on the potential effects of climate change on food and nutrition security in India. It finds that India’s food
systems are highly vulnerable to climate change on a number of fronts. A key
finding emphasized in the chapter is that these effects will impact not just on
agricultural production arrangements, but on the wider food system through the
impacts of climate change on food prices, the composition of the rural economy,
and the potential effects of severe weather and sea-level rise. Despite efforts by the
Government of India, the nation remains inadequately prepared for the magnitude
of effects, should the worst effects eventuate. There is a profound need for further
research in India regarding the full food system implications of climate change,
particularly with respect to the adaptation needs of vulnerable communities.
1 Introduction
Assessing how changes to the global climate system will impact upon the ways that
humanity seeks to feed itself is an extremely difficult exercise. To do this requires
consideration of a huge diversity of variables, both ecological and social, which
interact in an uncertain and unpredictable fashion. Despite our best efforts, we can
merely speculate upon many of these interactions. This problem persists notwithstanding the major advances in the science and social science of this issue during
recent years, which form the basis of the landmark Chap. 7 (‘Food security and
Food Production Systems’) of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report of Working Group II (AR5-WG II) (IPCC 2014).
The aim of this chapter is to revisit knowledge about the potential range of
linkages between food security and climate change, and apply it to the contemB. Pritchard (&)
School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
e-mail: bill.pritchard@sydney.edu.au
B. Pritchard
International Visiting Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
S. Nautiyal et al. (eds.), Climate Change Challenge (3C)
and Social-Economic-Ecological Interface-Building, Environmental Science,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31014-5_2
11