Drought and unsustainable water management are pinned down as the culprit in the alarming food crisis around the world fearing worse scenario unless intervention is done to solve the interconnected problem, the United Nations report today.

The effects of drought experienced on major food exporters like Australia and Ukraine has caused an alarming scale on how climate-change could contribute to a future of ongoing global food crises.

Water scarcity in both countries has already caused food shortage in neighboring nations as drought disrupted food production and exports, most markedly Australian rice, contributing to higher global prices of staples and reducing the supply of food relief to the world’s poorest people.

“Drought creeps,” says UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction secretariat Director Salvano Briceno, “and we must outrun it. But this will take a genuine mindset and policy shift towards the ethos that prevention is better than cure, and serious political and economic commitment to saving harvests and lives on a global economic level.”

The collapse of Australia’s rice production is one of several factors contributing to a doubling of rice prices in the last three months — increases that have led the world’s largest exporters to restrict exports severely, spurred panicked hoarding in Hong Kong and the Philippines, and set off violent protests in countries including Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Italy, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, the Philippines, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

Briceno expressed that there is an urgent need to manage the increasing drought impact of climate change stressing the move as crucial in addressing the food crisis long term, which as of now left millions of people hungry and nations in struggle for food supplies.

“Drought is a slow-building phenomenon but communities and nations can build their defenses against rising temperatures and dryer seasons with good planning – such as better water management and scaled-up use of available risk-reduction tools and programmes to combat drought and desertification,” Briceno added.

In developing nations like the Philippines, Filipinos call for more initiatives, global to local, to address climate change and its impact as scientists warn that the country could experience famine by 2020 as a result of the impact of 'global warming' on natural resources.

“The impact of climate change on agriculture will be very bad,” said Lourdes Tibig, climate data chief of the central office of the national weather agency, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).

Tibig predicted that from 2050 and beyond, the Philippine agriculture sector will be vulnerable and could lead to devastating famine and economic bedlam among the country’s estimated 90 million people.

And the numbers are still growing. According to a report from the National Statistics Board, the Philippines will add some more 4 million people in two years.

World experts also outlined that the demand for food is expected to double by year 2030 with the global population increasing from today’s 6 billion people to 9 billion by 2050, translating to more mouths to feed in the coming days.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has already observed that the currently raised levels of drought will further increase; placing billions of people at risk of water stress and hunger by the end of the century

The IPCC calls for deep cuts in carbon emissions and urgent action to implement practical ways to prevent more crop damages due to ongoing weather disturbances. VoyageFilm.com

(With additional reporting from Rhaydz Barcia, Tze Ming Mok & Keith Bradsher)