Protecting Plants Will Protect People and the Planet

By Barbara WellsROME, Jul 26 2021 (IPS) Back-to-back droughts followed by plagues of locusts have pushed over a million people in southern Madagascar to the brink of starvation in recent months. In the worst famine in half a century, villagers have sold their possessions and are eating the locusts, raw cactus fruits, and wild leaves to survive. Barbara WellsInstead of bringing relief, this year’s rains were accompanied by warm temperatures that created the ideal conditions for infestations of fall armyworm, which destroys mainly maize, one of the main food crops of sub-Saharan Africa. Drought and famine are not strangers to southern Madagascar, and other areas of eastern Africa, but climate change bringing warmer temperatures is believed to be exacerbating this latest tragedy, according to The Deep South, a new report by the World Bank. Up to 40% of global food output is lost each year through pests and diseases, according to FAO estimates, while up to 811 million people suffer from hunger. Climate change is one of several factors driving this threat, while trade and travel transport plant pests and pathogens around the world, and environmental degradation facilitates their establishment. Crop pests and pathogens have threatened food supplies since agriculture began. The Irish potato famine of the late 1840s, caused by late blight disease, killed about one million people. The ancient Greeks and Romans were well familiar with wheat stem rust, which continues to destroy harv...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Africa Biodiversity Climate Change COVID-19 Development & Aid Economy & Trade Environment Featured Food & Agriculture Food Security and Nutrition Food Sustainability Global Headlines Health Humanitarian Emergencies Natural Re Source Type: news