Effect of Climate Change on Food Security vis-à-vis Plant Diseases

Abstract

Climate change is the biggest threat to mankind, affecting agriculture due to 0.74C average global increase in temperature in the last 100 years and atmospheric CO2 concentration rise from 280 ppm in 1750 to 400 ppm in 2014-15. Such changes pose a drastic influence on the growth and cultivation of the different crops on the Earth as global food production must increase by 50% to meet the projected demand of the world’s population by 2050. Simultaneously, these changes will also affect the reproduction, spread and severity of many plant pathogens, thus posing a threat to our food security. Pest and disease management has played its role in doubling food production in the last 40 years, but pathogens still claim 10–16% of the global harvest. Integrated solutions and international co-ordination in disease management strategies should be reoriented under changing climatic conditions with amalgamation of new strategies for sustainable food production and food security.