Development Challenges and Directions of Climate Change Measures in Paddy Agriculture in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The world’s population is growing rapidly. Ensuring global food security is becoming increasingly urgent. Adapting to changes caused by climate change while maintaining food security and agricultural sustainability is difficult, and inter-state conflicts, together with energy and value chain issues, complicate food issues. There are synergies and trade-offs between agriculture and climate change which must be analyzed to inform future strategies. With the world population expected to exceed 9.7 billion by 2050, rice consumption is expected to increase significantly. Paddy farming is essential to meet demand in Southeast Asian countries where rice is the staple food, but its expansion can cause environmental problems due to methane emissions from paddy fields and the large amounts of water required for cultivation. Paddy farming in Southeast Asia is the main source of water consumption often exacerbating water scarcity in some regions due to water competition with other sectors. This study focuses on the synergies and trade-offs related to improving paddy farming in Southeast Asia. Improving rice production requires adaptation to climate change including drought and flooding, and the availability of water resources, fertilizer management, and smarter labor, leveraging synergies among these items to increase productivity and sustainability. On the other hand, these items also involve numerous trade-offs, such as increased greenhouse gas emissions labor costs, and labor demands. Therefore, we reviewed the literature on management strategies for rice production in the context of climate change. We focused our review on farmers’ participatory water management and the application of the Alternate Wetting and Drying Method and biochar for adaptation strategies for climate change. The results indicate that farmers are taking charge of irrigation systems through Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) and Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT), giving them control over water use and maintenance. Alternate Wet and Drying (AWD) and biochar methodologies are climate change adaptation strategies for farmers that can maintain a favorable balance between synergies and trade-offs in promoting appropriate future water use in paddy fields.