Searing heat wave in India and Pakistan could threaten wheat harvest

A searing heat wave across south Asia threatens to exacerbate the global food crisis after scorching wheat fields in India, the world’s second biggest producer of the grain, according to Bloomberg.

This could be a big blow to global wheat supplies that have already been struck hard by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both of which are among the biggest wheat exporters in the world. Several nations, such as Egypt, have looked to India to make up the shortfall, but this devastating heat wave could diminish India’s ability to produce enough wheat to match demand.

🧵A short thread : India #Heatwave as forecasted in Heat Stress (the Universal Thermal Climate Index) from ECMWF.

- North India region experiencing highest level of Extreme Heat. There is no time forecasted to be in a normal thermal comfort range.#HeatStress (1/3) pic.twitter.com/HgnJIrmGuL

— Chloe Brimicombe (@ChloBrim) April 26, 2022

Temperatures have soared to some of the highest levels recorded in March and April in the South Asian country, and Bloomberg reports this could mean 10 to 50 percent smaller yields this season.

India’s neighbour Pakistan has also been badly hit by the heat wave. Temperatures across the subcontinent have reached record levels, putting millions of people at risk as the countries reel under the likely effects of climate change.

Indian capital New Delhi has reeled under temperatures reaching over 40 degrees Celsius for seven consecutive days, while Jacobabad in Sindh, Pakistan, scorched at 47 degrees Celsius on Friday, making it the hottest place in the northern hemisphere on that day.

A rough sketch of an area with temperatures above 40°C today. Easily over 500 million people in a 40-degree heatwave. pic.twitter.com/OOG7jqrsFo

— Mika Rantanen (@mikarantane) April 28, 2022

"This heat wave is definitely unprecedented," said Dr Chandni Singh, IPCC Lead Author and Senior Researcher at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements as quoted by CNN. "We have seen a change in its intensity, its arrival time, and duration. This is what climate experts predicted and it will have cascading impacts on health."

India, a country of nearly 1.4 billion people, is one of the nations expected to be worst affected by climate change, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

A 2019 heat wave killed more than 200 people in India and Pakistan, while a study by India’s meteorologists concluded that 17,000 people have been killed by heat waves in the last 50 years in the country. There is no concrete data for how many people have been severely affected or died during this year’s soaring temperatures.