El Niño's impact on global food production

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has declared the onset of the first El Niño event in seven years. The WMO estimates at 90% the probability of occurrence, throughout 2023, of the climate phenomenon that involves the unusual heating of the Pacific Ocean, with moderate power. The El Niño phenomenon brings warmer, drier weather to places like Brazil, Australia and Indonesia, increasing the risk of wildfires and droughts. In other countries, such as Peru and Ecuador, it increases rainfall, causing floods. The effects are sometimes described as a preview of the “new normal” in the face of climate change generated by human activity. And its consequences on agricultural production — and therefore on the price of food, in particular basic grains such as wheat, corn and rice — are particularly worrying. The global impacts of El Niño are complex and diverse. Potentially, it can influence the lives of the majority of the world's population, especially poor and rural families, ...