Climate change will Worsen Hunger, study says.

• Author: Block, Ben
• Position: EYE ON EARTH

Climate change is expected to lower grain yields and raise crop prices across the developing world, leading to a 20-percent rise in child malnutrition, according to a September study from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The study was the first to combine climate and agricultural models to measure the effects of climate change on the global food supply.

Higher temperatures are expected to reduce some crop yields, allow damaging weeds and insects to spread, and shift precipitation patterns worldwide. While some agricultural regions are expected to benefit from climate change, overall production will decline for the world's rice, wheat, maize, millet, and sorghum harvests, the report said.

Most severely affected will be the wheat-growing regions of South Asia, Europe and Central Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, where production is projected to decline by 46,47, and 35 percent, respectively. Also under threat are Middle Eastern rice paddies, where production is expected to fall by 36 percent.

The regions that would benefit from climate change would experience relatively smaller changes. The analysis estimates that wheat production in Latin America will grow by 13 percent and that millet production will increase in the East Asia and Pacific region and in Latin...