Agencies
NEW DELHI, Jan 20: Labour productivity could fall as low as 40 per cent in countries like India and Pakistan by the end of the century due to climate change, threatening global food production, according to a study.
The research, published in the journal Global Change Biology, predicts that other regions in southeast and south Asia, west and central Africa, and northern South America are expected to see physical work capacity reduced to 70 per cent.
"Assessments consistently conclude that climate change will reduce crop yields making food security challenges worse," said study lead Gerald Nelson, a professor at the University of Illinois in US.
"But it's not only crops and livestock that are affected. The agricultural workers who plant, till, and harvest much of the food we need will also suffer due to heat exposure, reducing their ability to undertake work in the field," Nelson said.
The study involved using computational models to predict the physical work capacity-defined as 'an individual's work capacity relative to an environment without any heat stress'-under different predicted climate change scenarios.
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