Revision summary
Tropical staple crops already sit near heat and rainfall limits, so extra warming cuts yields. Floods, droughts, and glacier-fed irrigation loss make supply unstable. The poor lose access when local prices rise, even if global trade still moves grain. Heat, pests, and disease reduce the nutrition that food can deliver. Women, rainfed farmers, and small islands carry the first losses.
Model answer
Flow diagram
flowchart TD C[Climate change] --> Y[Yield loss heat flood drought] C --> F[Fisheries pests spoilage] Y --> P[Price shock] F --> N[Weaker nutrition] P --> H[Household hunger] N --> H
Conclusion
- Expand heat-tolerant and short-duration varieties through public research such as IRRI and national systems like ICAR.
- Combine irrigation, crop insurance, and social grain stocks so access does not collapse when the monsoon fails.
- Protect mangroves, soils, and small fisheries because they are food systems, not only environmental extras.
In the tropics, climate change cuts harvests, raises prices, and spoils nutrition at the same time. Food security policy has to treat seeds, water, storage, and social protection as one climate task.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
Why is the South-West monsoon called 'Purvaiya' (easterly) in Bhojpur Region? How has this directional seasonal wind system influenced the cultural ethos of the region?
Next question on this syllabus topic (2023 · Q7). View answer →
-
Is food insecurity in the tropics only a production problem?
No. Prices, storage, health, and gender decide access and utilisation even when some grain is still grown.
-
Do tropical countries face the same climate food risk?
They share heat and monsoon or trade-wind climates, but irrigation, income, and governance make the shock unequal.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2025 · Q4 · GS I · 10 marks
How are climate change and the sea level rise affecting the very existence of many island nations? Discuss with examples. -
2025 · Q7 · GS I · 10 marks
What are Tsunamis? How and where are they formed? What are their consequences? Explain with examples. -
2024 · Q4 · GS I · 10 marks
What is sea surface temperature rise? How does it affect the formation of tropical cyclones? -
2023 · Q7 · GS I · 10 marks
Why is the South-West monsoon called 'Purvaiya' (easterly) in Bhojpur Region? How has this directional seasonal wind system influenced the cultural ethos of the region? -
2021 · Q4 · GS I · 10 marks
Differentiate the causes of landslides in the Himalayan region and Western Ghats. -
2021 · Q7 · GS I · 10 marks
Mention the global occurrence of volcanic eruptions in 2021 and their impact on regional environment. -
2020 · Q5 · GS I · 10 marks
The process of desertification does not have climate boundaries. Justify with examples. -
2020 · Q14 · GS I · 15 marks
The interlinking of revivers can provide viable solutions to the multi-dimensional inter-related problems of droughts, floods and interrupted navigation. Critically examine.
More from this topic
Q7 · UPSC Mains 2025 · GS I · 10 marks
What are Tsunamis? How and where are they formed? What are their consequences? Explain with examples.
Geophysical Phenomena
A tsunami is a train of long ocean waves caused by sudden motion of the seafloor. Most begin on subduction megathrusts; landslides and volcanoes can also trigger them. In deep water they are fast and low; near shore they flood. The 2004 Sumatra quake devastated the Andamans, Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and coasts as far as Africa. Warning systems work only with drills, and mangroves take some of the blow.
Q4 · UPSC Mains 2025 · GS I · 10 marks
How are climate change and the sea level rise affecting the very existence of many island nations? Discuss with examples.
Geophysical Phenomena
Sea level rises mainly because seawater expands as it warms and because land ice melts. Low atolls lose their freshwater lens and then their dry land to tides and storm surge. The Maldives, Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands live inside that risk. Legal identity, EEZ and citizenship become questions if territory disappears. Deltas such as the Sundarbans drown in a related way even though they are not island states.
Q4 · UPSC Mains 2024 · GS I · 10 marks
What is sea surface temperature rise? How does it affect the formation of tropical cyclones?
Geophysical Phenomena
SST is the temperature of the ocean surface mixed layer that exchanges heat with the air. SST rise is long-term warming plus more marine heatwaves, because oceans store greenhouse heat. Tropical cyclones need warm water, Coriolis force, low shear and a seed disturbance. Warmer seas expand the fuel area and raise potential intensity and rainfall. Global storm counts need not jump in lockstep. Intense and rapidly intensifying storms are the clearer risk. The Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea must be read with monsoon shear, not with SST alone.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.