Extreme flooding has led to significant decreases of this important food staple

Extreme flooding has led to a significant reduction in one of the world's most important food staples, according to new research. Devastating floods in Asia and surrounding regions between 1980 and 2015 has caused rice yields to decrease by 4.3% annually -- equating to crop losses of up to 18 million tons globally, a paper published Thursday in Science Advances found. The researchers found the results "very shocking," Zhi Li, an assistant professor civil, environmental and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and lead author of the paper, told ABC News. "That's a huge impact," Li said, adding that such losses could impact local food security. Researchers used a global flood model and compared those results with historical flood inundation based on satellite obser