How climate change affects pest management and food security and what is the increase in crop losses to insect pests in a warming climate?
Increased temperatures will also increase the pest population, and water stressed plants at times may result in increased insect populations and pest outbreaks. This will affect the crop yield and availability of food grains and threaten food security. Insects already consume 5 to 20% of major grain crops and three most important grain crops wheat, rice, and maize yield lost to insects will increase by 10 to 25% per degree Celsius of warming, hitting hardest in the temperate zone. Each additional degree of temperature rise could cause yield losses from insect pests to increase by a further 10-25%. Climate change has increased pest population and their damage potential by expanding distribution, enhancing survivability and allowing developing the adaptability of insect pest. For instance, increased frequency and intensity of droughts, floods, heat waves and other extreme events directly threaten food productivity and soil health, leading to severe food shortages. Increased temperatures, weather variability, invasive crops and pests, and more frequent extreme weather events have all had detrimental effects on farming from diminishing agricultural yields, to weakening the nutritional quality of produce on farms, to reducing farmer incomes
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