A recent story by The Independent details a hunger crisis in Zimbabwe fuelled by poor harvests as a result of El Nino intensified drought conditions. The UN Food Program has announced a government aid package to assist the reported 2.7 million rural people affected.

12-14 million people are currently at risk of acute food insecurity across some areas of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, because of an ongoing, multi-season drought, warns the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. If rains continue to fail, the number of highly food insecure people could rise to 15-20 million. According to the Addis Standard, increasing numbers of livestock are succumbing to the drought, and pastoralists are being forced to travel further to find water and pasture.

In this blog post, published by the Resilience of the UK Food System in a Global Context research programme, Dr John Ingram of the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute argues that, contrary to public perceptions, the Australian food system is at growing risk of disruption from droughts, floods, an aging farmer population, or potential shocks such as a reduced ability to export beef to China due to bluetongue disease.

This book looks at how fungi can be used in sustainable agriculture, for example as a fertiliser, for management of drought and as a growth promoter.

According to the Global Risks Report 2020 by the global NGO World Economic Forum, the five risks with the greatest likelihood of happening all relate to the environment (as opposed to the economy, society, geopolitics or technology). The five risks are: extreme weather, climate action failure, natural disasters, biodiversity loss and human-made environmental disasters.

This paper models the changes in vegetation and agricultural land use that might be expected if action is not taken to mitigate climate change. Temperatures in the UK would increase by around 5.4°C in the growing season and 4.7°C out of the growing season by the end of the century. The growing season would become drier by around 37% and the non-growing season would become 7% wetter, with drying being less pronounced in the north of the UK than the rest of the country.

This book, edited by Mirza Hasanuzzaman, Kamrun Nahar and Mohammad Amzad Hossain, provides a comprehensive overview of the response of wheat cultivation to changing environmental conditions, including extreme temperatures, drought and ultra-violet radiation.

Growing millet next to a woody shrub native to West Africa could increase biomass by over 900% compared to growing millet alone, according to this paper. The shrub, Guiera senegalensis J.F. Gmel, has tap roots that can reach water deep in the soil. The study traced the movement of water from the shrub’s deep roots to the millet stems in a simulated drought.

Farmers in Britain and other European countries have been affected by the ongoing heatwave and dry weather. Oxfordshire farmer Lesley Chandler told the Guardian, “It’s like a tinderbox out here… Just a spark could set it all alight” (read more here). Combine harvesters can create sparks if their blades hit a stone.