Food supply chains at risk in changing south-east Asian climate

By Zara Maung
guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 April 2010 12.35 BST A report co-written by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and HSBC Climate Change Centre of Excellence claims that food supply chains in India and south-east Asia are under serious threat from changing climatic conditions. Aquaculture in the region, including farmed Thai shrimps and Vietnamese catfish are at risk from rising air temperatures, which increase the temperatures of fisheries and lower yields. Other agricultural sectors are also at risk due to water scarcity. These include edible oils, such as palm oil, and the sugarcane industry, especially in India where the largest sugar growing areas are some of the most water scarce areas of the country, according to the report. The environmental damage caused by the south-east Asian shrimp and palm oil industries has already been widely acknowledged in the UK. The report is targeted towards investors to persuade them to ask companies to assess their Indian and south-east Asian suppliers on how vulnerable they are to climate change. Dana Krechowicz, one of the authors of the report, told Guardian Sustainable Business that local Indian investors were shocked when the WRI showed them water scarcity maps of the country. She suggests that companies sourcing from India and south-east Asia should be raising awareness about water scarcity and helping suppliers to install irrigation and water storage technology, especially in India where irrigation tends to be less developed. Companies also need to think about rising food prices due to falling crop yields, says Krechowicz. According to the WRI’s predictions, crop yield in Indonesia could fall by 30-50% over the next 100 years due to climate change. Krechowicz warns that rising food prices due to food shortage will force governments to make “tough decisions” to secure national food supplies. She uses the example of violent anti-rice hoarding crackdowns by the government during the Philippine rice crisis in 2008. … Soil degrading practices such as monoculture, the modern agricultural technique of growing one single crop over a wide area, and the use of pesticides and fertilisers put suppliers at greater risk of climate change, according to Krechowicz. …

Food supply chains at risk in changing south-east Asian climate via The Oil Drum