Rice agriculture in Indonesia could be harmed by the climate change. This hot topic continues with growing force, according to science works published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the beginning of this month. As our readers knew the agriculture sector in Indonesia is already strongly influenced by annual and inter-annual variations in rainfall caused by the Austral-Asia monsoon and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (see this) . These and more catastrophic facts were found at simulators studies how climate change could affect rainfall in Indonesia over the next 50 years. The team from United States’ Stanford University used output from all 20 available global climate models provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Focusing on the important rice-growing areas (Bali and Java), the scientists have found that the value of harmful delays ― more than 30 days ― in monsoon rains could more than double by 2050, from 9–18 per cent today to 30–40 per cent!! They also predict that the country will experience longer dry seasons with decreased rainfall in the meantime. “It is incumbent on the research community to develop rice cultivars and associated agricultural practices that will allow farmers to continue to increase rice production to meet projected increases in demand,” Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute.
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