An international seminar on the impacts of climate change on Asian and Vietnamese agriculture and responding policies was held here on Friday by the Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).
According to Vietnam News Agency, the event attracted scientists and managers in agriculture from Bangladesh, China, Pakistan, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
Nguyen Van Bo, Director of the Vietnam Agricultural Science Institute, under MARD, addressed at the seminar that Vietnamese agricultural products play an importance role in securing food and providing jobs to the rural people.
Impacts due to climate change, including sea water rising, land submersion, soil quality degradation and desert, all pose challenges to agricultural production and its sustainable development.
The seminar provided opportunities for regional scientists and managers in the field to share experience, research and consultation on the vulnerableness of agriculture to climate change, as well as set up policies to cope with its impacts, Bo said.
ICRISAT Research Program Director MCS Bantilan shared with participants experience in climate change. She said that poor farmers are the worst affected by climate change and also the most vulnerable to its impacts.
To enhance capabilities to respond to climate change, in terms of social and institutional factors, and set forth scenarios to respond to it, as well as provide information, solutions and consultancy to the farmers are necessary, Bantilan said.
According to MARD, climate change has great impacts to Vietnam, which caused damage worth 1.3-1.5 percent of the country’s GDP, of which agriculture is the biggest loser. Vietnam tries to find out solutions and set up appropriate policies to make its agriculture in full response to climate change and for its sustainable development.
