December 10, 2009

As world leaders now gathered in Copenhagen struggle to cobble together a global agreement to address climate change, the Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE) declares that agricultural adaptation strategies must not be overlooked in identifying the elements of such an agreement.

SEARICE is a regional development organization that promotes and strengthens the conservation and sustainable utilization of agricultural biodiversity in partnership with farmers and farming communities in Bhutan, Lao PDR, the Philippines, Thailand and the Philippines.

Food security is a foremost concern when projections of the impact of climate change are considered. As larger areas of agricultural land are inundated by floods or rendered unproductive by drought, the world’s food supply will increasingly be put at risk.

SEARICE asserts that ongoing programs to ensure the stability of the world’s food supply should be implemented in tandem with efforts to continually develop agricultural biodiversity. Keeping crop germplasm in storage is not enough. In order to assure the survival of crop varieties, especially those that are adapted to extreme climatic conditions, a continual, dynamic, and community-based system of plant breeding must be strengthened.

Through the work of SEARICE, rice farmers in Vietnam have been able to breed and develop 182 rice varieties, 3 of which are tolerant to saline conditions in the Mekong Delta region, in particular. A rice farming community in the Philippines has been able to select rice varieties that are tolerant to drought conditions. To date, more than 700 communities in 45 provinces of Bhutan, Lao PDR, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam are involved in breeding and selection of food crop varieties under very specific conditions, supported by local government units, civil society organizations and agriculture researchers.

The warming of the climate system is global. Yet, the solution must be local, taking into account specific community needs, and socially and culturally appropriate and sustainable solutions.

(Read SEARICE’s Statement on the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference [COP15].