Mekong region farming must adapt to social shifts in next 30 years -
report
 
01 Apr 2010
 
BANGKOK (AlertNet) - In the Mekong river region, global warming is not
the first worry on farmers' minds. Over the next 30 years, mainly
social shifts such as a rising population and evolving diets will
drive changes in agriculture, researchers said in a wide-ranging
report.
 
But if farmers adapt to a growing demand for food and for increasingly
popular meat and vegetables without depleting limited water reserves,
they will also be better prepared for future effects of climate
change, including an expected rise in the sea level which would flood
some highly productive land, they said.
 
"In the next 20 or 30 years, climate change is not likely to be a
major driver of change but beyond that, climatic shifts may call for
major changes in agriculture," said the 24-page report by the
International Water Management Institute, entitled "Rethinking
Agriculture in the Greater Mekong Subregion".
 
The population of the region - which comprises Laos, Myanmar,
Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and China's Yunnan Province - is forecast
to rise to over 340 million from 275 million, pushing up demand for
food by at least a quarter and putting pressure on farmland, according
to the report launched this week.
 
Meanwhile, rapid urbanisation and hydropower and irrigation
developments in the region could wreak havoc on farming and fisheries.
 
So agricultural practices must be rethought - and not only in order to
meet the demand for food, but also to protect the 30 to 40 percent of
the region's labour force who earn their living in the sector.
 
Moreover, the region is a significant agricultural exporter. For
example, between 2008 and 2009 Thailand and Vietnam exported more than
14 million tonnes of rice, mostly to Africa.
 
Overall, using more nimble and sophisticated farming methods will
ensure farmers are well-equipped to deal with any upheaval - social or
climatic - that awaits them in the next century.
 
"People's capacity to adapt to change is closely linked to wealth,
diversification of income sources, education and access to
infrastructure and technology. Promoting broad-based agricultural
development to lift deprived rural communities out of poverty is
probably the most effective adaptation strategy available," the report
said.
 
Some recommendations by the report's authors:
 
# Land should be better managed so more crops can be grown in less
space
# Fish can be cultivated in rice paddies. Rice paddies provide natural
food for fish, while fish eat weeds and insects in the paddy field and
fish manure fertilises rice
# Precautions should be taken to avoid losing rice and other crops in
the process of drying, packing and transporting it. Such losses are
estimated to be between 10 and 40 percent.
# Governments can promote agricultural diversification to protect
farmers against wholesale crop failures
# Insurance schemes can be introduced to reduce the risk of adopting
new practices. As one author, Robyn Johnston, put it, "we're asking
for change from poor farmers who have very few options".
# Tariffs can be imposed on pesticides to discourage unnecessary use
of the environmentally-harmful chemicals
# Water can be used more economically by, for example, collecting and
storing water run-off on farms