Climate Change Threatens North Africa Food Supply

Increasingly frequent droughts in North Africa will force governments to import more food, placing their economies under severe strain unless global warming is checked, a senior UN climate expert said.

A dry spell in Morocco has slashed the country’s 2007 grain crop to an estimated 2.0 million tonnes from 9.3 million last year and the government is expected to triple soft wheat imports to 3.0 million tonnes.
Rising world temperatures will make such droughts more common, increasing dependence on large-scale, costly food imports in the region, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Chairman Rajendra Pachauri told Reuters on Tuesday.

“Grain stocks globally are at a precarious low and if you look at the predicament of regions like this one you really don’t have the kind of reserves to draw on if you want to import large quantities,” said Pachauri.

“They will have to pay heavily for this and this could disturb the economies of the region.”

Planet Ark