Climate Warning For Thai Crop Yields, Agriculture - Bangkok Post

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Climate experts have warned of a drastic decline in Thai agricultural crop yields due to hotter weather and more frequent occurrence of natural disasters triggered by climate change and global warming. ''The government should come up with a climate change adaptation plan for the farm sector now if it wants to achieve its ambitious goal of becoming the Kitchen of the World and to maintain the country's status as the world's largest rice exporter,'' said Kansri Boonpragob of Ramkhamhaeng University's science faculty.

Cash crop yields in tropical countries, including Thailand, would sharply drop if the global mean temperature rose by 1-2C _ a scenario which could happen in the decades to come, said Mrs Kansri, who presented a research paper on climate change and food security at the Thai Society of Environmental Journalists yesterday. Tropical countries currently had a mean temperature of around 28C, while the most appropriate temperature for crop productivity was between 20-28C.

''This means only a slight increase in temperature could cause devastation to our rice fields and fruit orchards,'' said the climate change expert. She cited the International Rice Research Institute's research showing that the fertility rate of the pollen of the Bangkhen rice strain would drop to around 40% if the temperature reached 34C.

An increase in the levels of carbon dioxide due to the intensive use of fossil fuels worldwide was another major cause of rising global temperatures, she explained. The world currently had around 356 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the air _ the largest amount in 400,000 years. The amount of carbon dioxide, however, was predicted to jump to 550-1,000 ppm by the next century.

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