How has global warming affected the quality of Basmati rice in India?
Answers
Answer:
The potential impacts of climate changes on aromatic rice have been studied extensively in recent decades all around the world by different empirical and simulation models.
Studies have revealed that the global temperature has risen by 0.74ºC in the past 100 years with a substantial increase in the CO2 level in the atmosphere.
The sea level is expected to raise upto 0.18 to 0.59 m by 2100.
Thus these variable climatic factors either alone or in combination with others are influencing the global rice yield and quality, thus increasing the market price of rice.
Diverse responses of yields to climate change have been observed spatially.
Increased average temperature has shown both negative or positive or even neutral effects on yield of aromatic rice.
Positive effect of solar radiation at critical stages has also been observed. The characteristics of aromatic rice varieties are somewhat different from normal rice varieties as they are preferred mainly for their quality.
The paper aims at assessing the climate change impacts on aromatic rice productivity and quality under different situation to render some possible clue to mitigate the adverse effects of climate.
climate scientists in India have said that basmati rice may not be as fragrant as it once was, thanks to global warming, the Times of India reports:
H Pathak, principal investigator of Indian Agricultural Research Institute’s Climate Change Challenge Programme, told TOI the Tarawari basmati grown in research fields in Delhi did not grow long enough and wasn’t as fragrant as it should have been when cooked.
He said global warming may be to blame for the disappointing basmati produced in the 2006-2007 experiment.
Temperatures that year crossed 26 degree Celsius in September when the basmati flowers and, 15 to 20 days later, when the grain begins to fill out, because of which a shrivelling of the grain was seen.
Times of India. Global Warming May Rob Basmati of its Fragrance.
Apparently the less than one degree rise in temperature over a century has so affected the rice, according to this research, that fatty acids which give it its distinctive fragrance have been destroyed.
However, the results obtained in the fields of the IARI climate research centre in Delhi have not been found by other scientists elsewhere:
But Dalel Singh, who heads Haryana Agricultural University’s Rice Research Station at Kaul, says his scientists have not observed the phenomenon seen at IARI, at least in harvests from 2007.
Times of India. Global Warming May Rob Basmati of its Fragrance.
What a surprise – a claim over the effects of global warming is seen at a climate science research centre, but not elsewhere.