Climate change pushed onion, potato prices in India up by over 80 pc in 2024: Study
New Delhi, Jul 25 (PTI) Food prices in India saw a sharp rise in 2024 due to an unusually severe heatwave, with onion and potato prices jumping by more than 80 per cent in the second quarter of the year, according to a new study.
The study, led by Maximilian Kotz of the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and involving researchers from the European Central Bank, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the UK’s Food Foundation, investigated 16 extreme weather-driven food price shocks across 18 countries between 2022 and 2024.
It found that many of these events exceeded all historical precedents before 2020 and were strongly influenced by global warming.
“In India, the price of onions and potatoes jumped by over 80 per cent in the second quarter of 2024 after a heatwave in May, a ‘largely unique event’ that was made at least 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer by climate change,” the researchers said.
The year 2024 was the hottest on record and the first with a global average temperature 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
In India, extreme heat in May severely affected crop yields and supply chains, contributing to high inflation in essential vegetables.
The study warned that such food price shocks could worsen health outcomes, including malnutrition and chronic diseases and increase economic inequality.
“Rising food prices have direct implications for food security, particularly for low-income households… When the price of food shoots up, low-income families often have to resort to less nutritious, cheaper foods. Diets like this have been linked to a range of health conditions like cancer, diabetes and heart disease,” Kotz said.
