Bolivian food crisis due to climate change

Xinhua: Persistent drought, cold weather and flooding, all attributed to climate change, are threatening Bolivia with a food crisis, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and experts have recently warned. FAO coordinator Einstein Tejada said one fifth of Bolivia's territory now suffer from the effects of climate change, causing food prices to rise.

The most vulnerable zone is the Andean area, hit by a long-running drought, he added. According to the government, more than 16,000 head of cattle and over 24,000 hectares of wheat, bean, corn and other crops have been affected by the drought. "Bolivia is affected by all the climate phenomenon in the world" except the hurricanes, he said.

Despite the government's efforts to lessen these effects on agriculture and livestock, the impact on food security will be felt, as well as imbalances in the ecosystems, he said. "We cannot deny the strong impact climate change has on the production systems," he added….

Market in Tarabuco, Bolivia, shot by Jenni Frog, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license