Rising sea 'an ominous threat'
2007-07-09 12:40
Manila - 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."
Wassman said the impact of global warming on the key cereal "will depend on the actual patterns of change in rice-growing regions".
But he warned a threatened rise of between 10 and 85 centimetres in sea levels over the next century which could have "enormous" impacts on some countries, including key rice exporter Vietnam.
Wassman said both higher maximum and higher minimum temperatures could decrease rice yields.
But he said the IRRI was optimistic it would be able to develop new varieties that could cope with higher temperatures.
Scientists are also confident that the resilience of rice production systems to climate extremes, such as floods and droughts, can be improved, he said.
However, he warned it unclear to what extent the impact of higher sea levels could be compensated for, and what the costs and socio-economic consequences of any such changes would be.