Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam risks a loss of 7.2 million tonnes of rice yieldand 3.2 percent of its agricultural land by the late 21st century as a resultof climate change, according to a Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developmentforecast.

The forecast was delivered in Hanoi at a recent conference on responsiveactivities to climate change in the agricultural sector in the context ofimplementing the Paris Climate Accord.

Do Xuan Lan, head of the ministry’s Department of Science, Technology andEnvironment, said the country’s food security and sustainable agriculturaldevelopment are already seriously affected by the negative impact of climatechange.

In the past 15 years, flooding has increased along with complicated erosion ofriver banks, estuaries and coastal areas. Natural disasters have contributed todestruction of the environment, living conditions, and socio-economic activities,he said.

Reports from the ministry’s Water Resource Directorate show that naturaldisasters in recent years have resulted in 300 deaths and losses of roughly 900million USD annually, accounting for 1.5 percent of the country’s GDP.

Natural disaster prevention measures have shown good results in reducing lossof life and property. The average number of dead or missing, which reached anannual average of 478 people between 2006 and 2011, has decreased to 226between 2012 and 2015. Most of the recent tropical storms have not led todeaths at sea.

However, climate change has been extreme and unpredictable. Deputy Minister ofAgriculture and Rural Development Hoang Van Thang said unsustainablesocio-economic development activities, such as deforestation and illegal sandmining, have contributed to the negative effects of natural disasters.

In recent years, extreme natural disasters such as super storms, typhoons inthe East Sea, droughts, prolonged salinity intrusion, torrential floods andriverside landslides have affected lives and agricultural production,especially in coastal and mountainous areas.

Therefore, Thang said, agricultural cultivation must be linked to theprotection of ecological systems and sustainable development.

In 2015, Vietnam joined the Paris Agreement Accord with roughly 200 othercountries to begin implementing national plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The ministry has set up an action programme to deal with climate change in theperiod of 2016-20, targeting reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percentevery ten years.

For cultivation, the ministry has targeted effective rice cultivation inresponse to climate change and development of drought or saline-resistantplants. For animal husbandry, the ministry is planning a switch from thesmall-scale animal farms to bio-safety farms. For forestry, it will keepimplementing the payment programmes for forest environmental services andboosting the management of irrigation systems and water use, he said.

According to the Crop Prospects and Food Situation report released by the UN’sFood and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Vietnam is expected to be the world’sfifth largest rice producer in 2017, with an average yield of 28.2million tonnes annually. The FAO forecast that the biggest rice producer thisyear will be China with 142.3 million tonnes, followed by India with 110.4million tonnes, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

Crop diversification is an effective measure to help agriculture become moreclimate resilient in Vietnam and other Mekong countries, experts said on thesidelines of a conference on June 15 in Haa Binh province.

The conference was designed to discuss with community and social organisations waysto facilitate climate resilience of agriculture and forestry in the Greater MekongSubregion.

Vietnamese farmers, many of whom rely on a sole agro-product, are highlyvulnerable to extreme weather events. “Producing a variety of crop and otheragro-products in just one farm would help reduce both climate risk and the riskstemming from market fluctuation,” said Do Trong Hoan from the WorldAgroforestry Centre (ICRAF).

Hoan said the solution was particularly suitable for mountainous regions wheremonoculture is often the tradition, citing an ICRAF project in the northwesternmountain region that helps farming households combine growing agricultural andforestry products.

“Farmers can both grow grass as feed for animal husbandry, corn, timber andorchards,” he said, explaining that this would help them reap economic benefitsand lessen the pressure on the environment due to deforestation and landdegeneration.

Promoting agricultural diversification and mixed farming systems is also anobjective of an on-going project in Laos’ Saravan province to adapt to climatechange, said Hongnapha Phommabouth, a representative of the Vientiane-basedGreen Community Development Association (GCDA).

Like other countries in the region, climate change has hit the land-lockedSoutheast Asian country in recent years with often-occurring drought and flood.The frequent drought resulted in low yields for farmers in the rural areas ofSaravan province who used to grow only rice.

“The GCDA project has helped them shift from rice to bamboo, and in theupcoming second phase of the project, we will ask them to combine it withgrowing organic vegetables and raising fish,” Phommabouth said.

Yadana, director of Myanmar’s Braveheart Foundation, said the Myanmargovernment was also introducing the crop diversification system to help farmersincrease yields and incomes.

Nguyen Duc To Luu from Pan Nature agreed that crop diversification is part ofthe solution, but said it was more suitable for large-scale farming.“Small-scale agriculture production makes it difficult for farmers to cope withthe impacts of climate change,” he said. “That’s why farmers should cometogether to form a community for coordinated activities.” 

Luu added that there is no single solution for all regions in response toclimate change. Solutions differ depending on the natural and socio-economicconditions of each region.

According to Luu, one of the major challenges was the lack of awareness byfarmers and local authorities on climate change.

In addition, rigid socio-economic targets set by higher authorities likedistrict or provincial authorities, mostly focused on quantity rather thanlong-lasting solutions, also discourage farmers and commune authorities fromapplying new climate-resilient methods.-VNA