Vietnam to Invest VND1 Tln into Projects to Cope With Climate Change by 2020
The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development plans to invest VND1 trillion (US$60.6 million) into irrigational projects to cope with climate change from now up to 2020.
The projects aim to map out irrigational measures to ensure safety for farmers in the climate change-affected areas and help them develop agriculture and forestry production by 2020, 2030, 2050 and 2100.
Vietnam’s agriculture sector with 73 per cent of its population depending on is forecast to be the hardest by the climate change.
Climate change will reduce paddy area by 12 per cent or 14 per cent per year or Vietnam will lose around five million tons of paddy, said Dr Nguyen Van Bo, director of Vietnam Science Institute under the MARD.
Bo added that weather change will reduce productivity of crops, forecasting that corn output will drop 5 per cent to 20 per cent if temperature rises by one degree Celsius, and 60 per cent if the temperature rises by 4 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, the International Rice Research Institute said rice output will drop 10 per cent if the temperature rises 1 degree Celsius.
General Statistics Office figures show that 435 Vietnamese people were killed with property losses of VND11.6 trillion (US$725 million), equivalent to 1 per cent of Vietnam’s Gross Domestic Product, in natural calamities during last year alone. (Vietnam Economic Times)
Vietnamese
