Climate change threatens agricultural crisis: U.N.

Immediate steps are needed to avert a potential catastrophe as climate change dries up water resources in drought affected areas, hitting poor farmers, a United Nations report said on Thursday.

The vast majority of the world's malnourished people, estimated at about 830 million people, are small farmers, herders and farm laborers, pointing to devastating effects from global warning and requiring a tripling of yearly farming aid to poor countries.

"Climate change threatens to intensify water insecurity on an unparalleled scale," the annual U.N. Human Development Report said.

"Even with drastic reductions in carbon emissions, past emissions mean that the world now has to live with dangerous climate change."