18 Apr 2007 - My name
is Katsuo Sasaki. I am a farmer and I have
more than 40 years experience in growing
rice. I am based in Miyagi on the northern
part of mainland Honshu. I have been growing
organic rice for the last 12 years, aiming
to secure the supply of healthy food. I
have been experiencing a lot of changes
that affect my farming activities, which
I believe are due to climate change, especially
in the last ten years. I am afraid that
my farm will no longer be suitable for producing
rice in next decades.
Low quality rice
Miyagi is known as a high-quality rice
producing area. But during the last ten
years the quality of rice has been degrading.
When the summer temperature is high, the
rice grains get opacified. Opacified rice
cannot be sold because of its poor quality.
Most farmers around here, including myself,
have been struggling with opacifying rice,
and this year, the prefectural government
has instructed us to put off the timing
of planting so that the rice would ripen
in autumn, when the temperature is lower.
In other words, because of these changes
in our climate, we have already come to
the point that we actually need to adapt
our farming practices to the new environment.
Beware of bugs
Deadly bugs have increased recently, especially
shield bugs. These bugs cause black spots
on rice, lessening the commercial value
of the crops. Ten years ago, I rarely saw
shield bugs, but they are increasingly found
in most parts of Japan’s agriculture sector.
Many farmers believe this is due to global
warming, which appears to be causing a lot
of trouble, not only to rice farmers but
also to vegetable and fruit farmers. As
a result, lots of farmers have no other
choice but to use more pesticides to control
the insects. As I have been focusing on
growing strong organic rice, my rice is
still resistant to those bugs, but I fear
that in the coming decades, Miyagi will
no longer be a suitable place for growing
rice.
Good rice needs three components — suitable
climate, good soil and clean mineral water.
I strongly feel Miyagi is losing its suitable
climate due to climate change. In the coming
decades, viable rice farming will probably
be limited to Hokkaido, the northern Island
of Japan, and the Miyagi area, which is
well known for its high-grade rice will
soon lose its reputation. It is happening.
I can see only bad things from the impact
of climate change. This worries me.
Extreme weather
We are also experiencing more frequent
extreme weather than when I started as a
farmer. Summer temperatures tend to fluctuate
considerably each year — one year summer
temperatures are hotter than average, the
next year they are colder. Both extremes
are detrimental to rice growing.
I feel that it is because of climate change
that we are experiencing more change in
temperature range. Last year, we experienced
torrential rainfall at the end of December,
which is very unusual. We often get heavy
rainfall in the typhoon season in September
and in the rainy season in July, but we
never had heavy rainfall in December as
far as I can remember. We were lucky last
year because it didn’t hit our farming area,
but in the future we need to be ready for
these kinds of unexpected weather events
that never happened before.
Living in harmony with nature
We have been using nature so far to suit
our needs. We have used a lot of pesticides
and fertilizers and we abandoned some of
the farm ground when it was not productive
enough, not thinking about the cycle of
nature. I feel the ecosystem is collapsing
because of these practices. Now, due to
global warming, many farmers feel that they
have no other choice but to use even more
pesticides, thus further undermining the
ecosystem and endangering the food security.
It is vicious cycle.
I am trying to break this cycle by focusing
on growing organic rice, which I believe
is the best way to secure the supply of
healthy food for the customers. I think
we need to value the natural qualities of
rice, and try to strengthen these qualities
so that we can produce more resilient rice.
I believe we need to live in harmony with
nature, instead of abusing nature.
Scientific background
According to IPCC TAR, the average temperature
increased 1ºC in Japan, and the precipitation
increased 5 to 10%. IPCC projections suggest
that this trend will continue, thus affecting
Japan's agriculture sector. The National
Agriculture and Bio-oriented Research Organization
(NARO) in Japan has reported that warmer
temperatures have degraded rice quality
and increased the incidence of harmful insects
in 70% of Japan’s rice fields, and that
rice production is likely to shift to the
northern part of Japan.
+ More
UN Security Council should take lead on
climate change
17 Apr 2007 - WWF expects the first ever
discussions of climate change in the UN
Security Council to give clear directions
to UN agencies as to how to respond to this
growing threat to human development.
At the request of the UK, the current chair
of the UN Security Council, an unpredecented
debate on climate change and its impacts
on security will take place today.
“If the world as a whole does not act on
the threat of climate change, we face a
future of mass migrations away from environmental
disaster areas and towards areas capable
of better adaptation to climate change,”
said Hans Verolme, Director of the WWF Climate
Change Programme.
“Some of these disasters will be sudden
and some will take time to become apparent,
but health, security and economic and social
development are at stake.”
Climate change and its impacts pose direct
and indirect threats: direct threats such
as floods, drought and famine often require
development and disaster relief action by
UN agencies. Indirect threats such as environmental
refugees and violence over resources need
involvement of refugee, civil protection
and military actors. UN agencies are pivotal
to develop the necessary policy responses
in concerned regions.
The UN must be aware that tackling energy
security issues need to be reconciled with
climate security: an increased use of coal
might be promoted as a means to securing
energy supplies but is clearly at odds with
climate security.
"There is a strong risk that governments
will fail to make the connection between
climate and energy security and just aim
at a quick – and dirty – fix for energy
supply, with disastrous consequences for
the future of the planet," said Verolme.
"The Security Council should initiate
the development of a global cooperative
energy and climate strategy. Countries need
to move away from competition for scarce
energy resources towards a clean low-carbon
development of all countries."
Martin Hiller, Communications Manager
WWF Climate Change Programme
