ASEAN agriculture faces climate change threat

With the completion of ASEAN economic integration, goods, labor and capital will flow freely, and the economic prospects of ASEAN member countries will be better. However, countries in the region are also facing the impact of declining agricultural production and increasing poverty caused by climate change such as drought, heavy rain and sea rise.

The experts recommended that ASEAN governments promote climate-smart agriculture and adopt sustainable agricultural production models such as "rice intensification techniques.

In 2010, agricultural output accounted for 1/3 of the GDP of Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia; 60% of the labor force in Cambodia was engaged in agriculture, 50% in Vietnam, and 33% in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. Agriculture occupies a major position in their economies. Since 2009, rainfall in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam has been below average, causing drought, production reduction and various diseases and insect pests; at the end of 2013, Typhoon Haiyan destroyed large tracts of Philippine coconut forests, and coconut and its products are the Philippines' No. 1 export agricultural products; sea level rise is also threatening rice production in Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar.

2015/6/1 People's Daily Online