Warming may hit RP, RI rice output

Warming may hit RP, RI rice output

MANILA (Reuter): Rice production in Indonesia and the Philippines is threatened by global warming, scientists told a climate conference yesterday.

They said a rise in global temperature could be caused by burning fossil fuels. Such a rise might affect the production of rice, the staple of the 270 million people in Indonesia and the Philippines.

"Rice self-sufficiency is threatened by (the) changing climate," Istiqlal Amien, P. Rejekiningrum, A. Pramudia and E. Susanti of the Center for Soil and Agroclimate in Bogor, Indonesia, said in a paper presented at the Asian Development Bank climate conference in Manila.

"Increasing the temperature by two degrees Celsius without any change in precipitation will reduce yields by 21 percent. A further increase in temperature of four degrees will reduce the yield by 39 percent," Leandro Buendia, of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), said in a separate report.

Indonesia produces nearly 40 million tons of rice for its 190 million people. Up to 60 percent is farmed on the main island of Java.

The Philippines produces just under 11 million tons of unmilled rice, virtually all of which is consumed by its 68 million people.

Manila allowed more than 800,000 tons of rice imports between the third quarter of 1995 and early 1996 after drought and storms ravaged the crop.