Air pollution hurts India's rice crop -study

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Air pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels like coal and diesel has contributed to a worrisome slowdown in rice harvest growth in India in the past two decades, scientists said on Monday.

The researchers said the findings suggest reducing so-called atmospheric brown clouds, formed from soot and other tiny airborne particles belched into the air when fossil fuels are burned, would help improve rice harvests to feed India's 1 billion people.

India has an acute problem with this type of pollution, which previous research showed can cut rainfall and lower temperatures.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers said harm from this air pollution has combined with broader global warming effects from greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide to squeeze India's rice harvest.

"If we let air pollution levels get worse, these effects are going to get larger," University of California-Berkeley scientist Maximilian Auffhammer, one of the researchers, said in a telephone interview. "If we don't do anything about this, things are not going to get better."

India is one of the world's major producers of rice. Broad agricultural improvements boosted India's rice harvests in the 1960s and 1970s, making it self-sufficient in its staple food.

The annual growth rate peaked at 2.7 percent in the mid-1980s. Growth has eroded since then, prompting worry about potential food shortages in the densely populated and poor country.

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