No abstract

This study highlights the major players in the global food balance, potential implications of COVID-19 on global food supply, and SDG-2 (zero hunger). It found that developing countries, fifteen from Africa followed by ten from Latin America, six from Oceania, and four from Asia, are the most vulnerable to changes cereal supply shocks. It concludes that the current pandemic is likely to cause transitory food insecurity across such vulnerable countries. The effects of the pandemic on food security (SDG-2) may persist longer as a combined effect of economic slowdown and increase in poverty, limiting food supply and access beyond 2020.

The study is the first attempt to assess the role of climatic predictors in the rise of COVID-19 intensity in the Russian climatic region. The study used the Random Forest algorithm to understand the underlying associations and monthly scenarios. The results show that temperature seasonality (29.2 ± 0.9%) has the highest contribution for COVID-19 transmission in the humid continental region. In comparison, the diurnal temperature range (26.8 ± 0.4%) and temperature seasonality (14.6 ± 0.8%) had the highest impacts in the sub-arctic region. Our results also show that September and October have favorable climatic conditions for the COVID-19 spread in the sub-arctic and humid continental regions, respectively. From June to August, the high favorable zone for the spread of the disease will shift towards the sub-arctic region from the humid continental region. The study suggests that the government should implement strict measures for these months to prevent the second wave of COVID-19 outbreak in Russia.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 targets access to water and sanitation for all people in the next 15 years. However, for developing countries such as Nepal, it is more challenging to achieve this goal given its poor infrastructure and high population growth. To assess the water crisis in the most developed and populated area of Nepal, the Kathmandu Valley, we estimated available water resources and domestic water demand in the valley. We estimated a supply deficit of 102 million liters per day (MLD) in 2016, after completion of the first phase of the Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP). If the MWSP is completed within the specified timeframe, and sufficient treatment and distribution infrastructure is developed, then there would be no water deficit by 2023-2025. This indicates that the MWSP will make a significant contribution to the valley's water security. However, emphasis must be given to utilizing all of the water available from the MWSP by developing sufficient water treatment and distribution infrastructure. Alternate mitigation options, such as planning land use for potential recharge, introducing micro-to macro-level rainwater harvesting structures, conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resources, and water demand-side management, would also be helpful.

The present study comprehensively analyzes error characteristics and performance of the two latest GPM-era satellite precipitation products over eastern China from April 2014 to March 2016. Analysis results indicate that the two products have totally different spatial distributions of total bias. Many of the underestimations for the GSMap-gauged could be traced to significant hit bias, with a secondary contribution from missed precipitation. For IMERG, total bias illustrates significant overestimation over most of the eastern part of China, except upper reaches of Yangtze and Yellow River basins. GSMap-gauged tends to overestimate light precipitation (<16 mm/day) and underestimate precipitation with rain rate larger than 16 mm/day; however, IMERG underestimates precipitation at rain rate between 8 and 64 mm/day and overestimates precipitation at rain rate more than 64 mm/day. IMERG overestimates extreme precipitation indices (RR99P and R20TOT), with relative bias values of 17.9% and 11.5%, respectively. But GSMap-gauged shows significant underestimation of these indices. In addition, both products performed well in the Huaihe, Liaohe, and Yangtze River basins for extreme precipitation detection. At basin scale comparisons, the GSMap-gauged data has a relatively higher accuracy than IMERG, especially at the Haihe, Huaihe, Liaohe, and Yellow River basins.

Nearly one-sixth of India is defined as a Drought Prone Area, and as such recurring drought is one of the major challenges in the region. This article focuses on various drought impacts in an important state of India (i.e. Maharashtra State), which contributes about 15% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Drought impacts vary from region to region, but the overall issues are similar and Maharashtra State is indicative of the rest of the Drought Prone Area of the country. This article briefly reviews the major impacts of the 2012 drought on Maharashtra State's water resources, agriculture, food security, adopted adaptation and mitigation measures and also outlines scope for future research.

This study investigates the temporal impacts of climate change on rice yield for summer-autumn (SA) and autumn-winter (AW) cropping pattern along with implication of brackish irrigation water for the SA season. Furthermore, evaluation of different agro-adaptations to overcome negative impacts of climate change was also done for Ca Mau province of Vietnam. Climatic variables were derived from six general circulation models which were further bias corrected at Ca Mau city station for three future time periods (2025s, 2055s, and 2085s). Calibrated AquaCrop 4.0 was used to project the future rice yield under climate change and different salinity levels in irrigation water. Simulation shows a decline in rice yield ranging from 1.60 to 23.69 % and 8.06 to 20.15 % by 2085s relative to baseline climate for A2 and B2 scenarios respectively in the case of the SA cropping season. However, an increase in rice yield ranging from 3.29 to 12.35 % and 6.64 to 17.23 % is observed for the corresponding time period and scenarios. Further simulations for the SA cropping season under climate change and increasing salinity in irrigation water suggest an insignificant increase in yield relative to the yield obtained without irrigation. Moreover, proper management practices, namely forward and early shifts in transplanting dates along with increasing fertilizer application rates, are observed to be beneficial to enhance the rice yield under climate change.

This study identifies the severity of impacts of drought in 2012 on domestic water supply, crop production, unskilled rural employment, and financial status of rural households in a drought-prone area of India. It is based on secondary and primary data collected by interviewing 223 households. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential applications in SPSS. As a consequence of drought, access to domestic water supply was cumbersome and time spent on water collection activities almost doubled compared with the time required in years with normal rainfall. On average, a respondent household suffered a loss of about 86% in production of major crops. High reductions in on-farm unskilled employment opportunities and an increase in unskilled labor in off-farm rural employment activities were reported. It was found that about 69% of respondents were availing loans and 79% of them delayed repayment of loans due to the consequences of drought. Our results indicated that the extent of drought damage varied according to household size, annual income, landholding size, farming system in use, and drought intensity. The effects of these factors on farming communities are reported with empirical evidence. Respondents with large family size, low to marginal land holding size, low income, and rainfed farming systems are found to be more vulnerable to drought impacts; special attention should be given towards increasing their resilience when designing drought management strategies.