How Wars Threaten Global Food Security: Cropland Loss, Fertilizer Shortages and Rising Food Prices
It is not only borders, cities, and military installations that are now being destroyed during wars; wars have become a matter for the global food system too. Be it the war between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, or the ongoing tensions between Israel, the USA, and Iran, the increasing pressure on farming, trading in grain, supplying fertilizers, and transportation has made the problem of food security worse.
According to a recent study, published in the journal Nature Food, 249,000 square kilometers of arable land were destroyed due to conflicts in the period from 2000 to 2020. The amount of food that could have been produced in those areas would have covered the minimum food energy requirements of 255 million people. Food losses in conflict zones are 23.7% higher. A study led by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences analyzed satellite data and more than 460,000 incidents of armed conflict in 155 countries. Phys.org published the findings.
According to the study, conflict-affected areas constitute about three percent of the world’s total land area, but in 2020, more than six percent of the world’s agricultural land was located in these areas. Here, agricultural land decreased by an average of three percent, and losses were 23.7 percent higher than in peaceful areas. The impact was particularly pronounced in Western and Eastern Africa and Southeast Asia.
According to the American think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Ukraine’s grain exports in 2025 were projected to be about 35 percent lower than in 2020. Approximately 1 million hectares of agricultural land are at risk from landmines, while the destruction of Ukraine’s Kakhovka reservoir has affected irrigation for approximately 600,000 hectares. This clearly demonstrates that war damage is not limited to current crops, but also complicates the restoration of agriculture.
