Expert says rising sea levels pose threat to rice

MANILA (AFP) – Rising sea levels triggered by climate change pose an “ominous” threat to some of the world’s most productive rice-growing areas, the International Rice Research Institute has warned.

The Philippines-based institution is devoting fresh efforts to mitigating the coming threat, but senior climate scientist Reiner Wassman said adequate funding had yet to materialise.


“Some of Asia’s most important rice-growing areas are located in low-lying deltas, which play a vital role in regional food security and supplying export markets,” Wassman told the IRRI magazine Rice Today.

“With Vietnam so dependent on rice grown in and around low-lying river deltas, the implications of a sea-level rise are ominous indeed.”

AFP