Developing “Climate-ready” rice to safeguard livelihoods in the fragile ecosystems

Nearly 100 million rice farmers live in unfavorable rice environments. These communities are among the poorest and most vulnerable to climate change. Solutions are urgently needed to avoid some of the worst impacts of climate change.

At a Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environments (CURE) workshop held in Cambodia in May 2010, with the theme: Responding to changing climate in the unfavorable rice environments, climate specialist Kay Sumfleth outlined some of the expected impacts of climate change. Climate modelers suggest that year-to-year variability will increase and extreme events will be more frequent. There are great uncertainties over regional differences and the expected impacts of climate change on rice agroecosystems. Amid these uncertainties, however, farmers in unfavorable areas are already facing many of the constraints that are expected with climate change. Solutions being developed with farmers in "today's" unfavorable environments, therefore, will serve rural people in other areas likely to be affected in "tomorrow's" world.