Desktop Study on - Regional Climate Change Adaptation ...

<strong>Desktop</strong> <strong>Study</strong>
Agriculture and Food Security Sector
Agriculture in Malaysia contributes to about 10%
of the total GDP and at least a third of the country’s
population depends on the agriculture sector,
with some 14% working in farms and plantations.
Changes in climate will affect the agriculture sector
in term of production as well as the impacting socioeconomic
problems to the people involved in the
sector and the nation as a whole (Kamal, 2007).
From the land use perspective, about 39.2% of total
land use or about 5.18 million hectares are planted
with tree crops like rubber, oil palm, cocoa, coconut,
fruits and vegetables.
Range of Studies Reviewed and
Methods Applied
No methods were found in the studies reviewed,
the studies include, Siwar et al., Kamal (2007),
Ramadasan et al. (2001), Ziska et al. (1997), Al-Amin
and Chamhur (2008), etc., which all consider and
review the impacts of climate change on Malaysian
agriculture, as a key economic sector, and establishing
linkages with sustainability and poverty.
Impacts on the Agricultural and Food
Sector
Agriculture is one of the sectors that is greatly affected
by extreme climate change and it is proved that it has
an important role on crop development. The climatic
factors like the amount of rainfall, sunshine hours,
temperature, etc. result in year-to-year variability
of crop production, as well as physical damage,
lost of crop harvest, drop in productivity, vigour
and others. Also high temperatures and reduction
of rainfall induce loss of soil moisture, reducing
the water available for irrigation and damaging
crop growth in non-irrigated regions (Siwar et al.,
2009). Climate change is one of the major potential
threats to national food security and agriculture for a
country. As the change of climate is a continuous and
long-term process, its impacts will continue for long
successive years.
Changing climate affects the agriculture industry; for
example, increasing rainfall is not good for rubber,
which will also suffer due to lost of tapping days and
crop washouts. However, some other crops like oil
palm could flourish with higher rainfall, considering
that excessive rainfall is detrimental but may be
negatively affected in temperature raise scenario
that causes drought (Ramadasan et al., 2001). It was
reported that flood related problems in southern
Malaysia had decreased the production of crude palm
oil to 1.1 million metric ton or 26.3% in December
2006 (Kamal, 2007).
The impact of climate change on agriculture (rice)
production has been a subject to many scientific
researches due to its important on human being. The
actual farm yields in Malaysia vary from 3-5 tons/ha.
The rice crop, in general responds positively to an
increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration; there is
an increase in rates of rice crop in CO2 concentration
from 160 ppm to 900 ppm. However the yield
response to CO2 varies with cultivars, location and
management practice and also the negative effects
occur in unexpected high or low temperature (Siwar
et al., 2009). Generally, the effect of increasing
temperature above the tolerance limit on rice
production is negative because the photosynthesis
is reduced, the respiration is increased and the
vegetation and grain-filling periods are shortened.
The average temperature in rice-growing areas
in Malaysia is about 26°C. An examination of the
current climate change scenario under different
future climate change indicates that temperature
above 25°C may decline grain mass of 4.4 % per 1°C
rise and grain yield may decline as much as 9.6 to
10%. Similar results were found by Ziska et al. (1997)
and they mentioned those flowering and grain-filling
periods were affected by an increase in temperature
above the present ambient level. It was found on rice
production in Malaysia that rice yield declines from
4.6% to 6.1% per 1°C under the present CO2 level.
Greater yield reduction is envisaged with increasing
temperature at higher level. However, a doubling
of CO2 concentration (from present level 340 to
680ppm) may offset the detrimental effect of 4°C
rise in temperature (Al-Amin and Chamhur, 2008).
The sustainability of food supply can also be affected
by climate change because of variations in yields due
to changes in rain and temperature that also could
fasten the spread of fungus, insects and diseases due
to the fact that the range of insects will expand or
change, and new combinations of pests and diseases
may emerge as natural ecosystems respond to
shifts in temperature and precipitation profiles;
thus affecting yield. States that are most vulnerable
to these changes are in the northern Peninsular
Malaysian region as well as the coastal regions
of Sabah and Sarawak (Kamal, 2007). The effect
of climate on pests may add to the effect of other
factors such as the overuse of pesticides and the loss
of biodiversity which already contribute to plant
pest and disease outbreaks (Al-Amin and Chamhur,
2008).
With regards to irrigation supply for agriculture and
food production, water shortages are also experienced
in varying degree of severity, and in the past, prolong
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