Discuss The Impact Of Climate Change On Rice Production

While it is evident that climate change will greatly affect temperature and precipitation over the coming decades, these changes in patterns will also have numerous effects on agriculture as extreme weather events can lead to disruptions within the food system. Climate change will make it more difficult to produce enough food for the world’s increasing population due to the alterations of planting and harvesting times, as well as the accessibility and quality of water. The USDA Technical Report found that increases in temperature, coupled with more variable precipitation, would reduce productivity of crops, with these effects outweighing any benefits of increasing CO2 (Murray 4). Along with the reduction of crop productivity will be an increase

While the Green Revolution increased food grain productivity and improved food security, further innovation is necessary to increase a sustainable food supply in the face of climate change. The impact of climate change on rice production in Asia is of particular policy interest, according to Gardner, as rice is the most important component in millions of Asians’ diets (133). As the seventeen Asian countries that produce the majority of the rice supply are located at different latitudes and terrains, climate change impact on rice production is diversified and uncertain at this point. The most at-risk region of South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) contains 23 percent of the world’s population, but generates only 2 percent of global income. This region has 40 percent of the world’s poorest people and the greatest number of hungry people. Gardner emphasizes that this region of the world is clearly the most vulnerable, in terms of the number of people likely to be affected, to any depressing effect of climate change on agricultural production