Philippines: Warming could cut rice production by 75 percent

Rice production will decline by as much as 75 percent in the Philippines if it is not quick enough to adapt to and put in place safeguards against climate change.The decline starts in 2020, according to a study made by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and released this week during a high level regional meeting on the impact of climate change in Asia and the Pacific.

The fall in rice production in the Philippines is the highest in the four countries—RP, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam—covered by the study. Indonesia will have the lowest decline at 35 percent.
Rice riots could happen if nothing is done beginning today. By 2100, the average decline for the four countries will be half of the 1990 rice harvests.

These are scary scenarios considering that Thailand and Vietnam are among the world’s major rice producers, while Indonesia has over 230 million rice eaters and the Philippines not far behind at 96 million consumers.

The Philippines, according to the study, will increasingly see more rains “for most of this century.” The western part of Southeast Asia is predicted to become hotter.

A large part of tropical forests and woodland, which are “huge” absorbers of carbon dioxide, will be replaced by tropical savanna and shrub land with little or not much potential for carbon sequestration.

Manila Times