Agriculture in Indonesia impacted by global warming

[Martin W]

From Jakarta Post:

Quote:

Policies involving the national weather forecast agency and farmers must be enacted to enable Indonesia to adapt to the grave effects of global warming and evade disruptions in food provision, a climate change seminar has been told. Scientists agree climate change has already begun unsettling the arrival of seasons and causing unseasonal fluctuations in temperatures, which are key to rice field cycles, agriculture and biodiversity. With this in mind, experts agreed at a seminar Thursday that adaptation was as important as mitigation — seen as more global and political — in the battle against global warming. Climate change is causing the arrival of seasons to be more erratic and tends to produce shorter wet seasons with more rainfall and longer dry seasons with prolonged water shortages. As a result, Indonesia has much to lose given that rice is its staple food and most Indonesians work in the agricultural sector. … Rizaldi Boer from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) said global warming had already damaged Indonesia’s rice-harvest cycle, leading to decreased production capabilities. "In Java, the cycle is 1.6 (harvests) per year compared to 2 some years before, meaning we no longer harvest rice twice a year. Outside Java, the cycle is even lower at 1.1 times," he said. While most participants focused on the effects global warming would have on agriculture and food production, the seminar also discussed the ability of flora and fauna to adapt to changes. For example, it is expected fish populations in Indonesia will move southward to Australia due to sea current changes. … Indonesia is the world’s third biggest greenhouse gas emitter after the U.S. and China, the result of forest fires and unbridled deforestation.

Weather agency, farmers must be involved in climate change policies: Experts

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