The agriculture sector is facing the dual challenge of increasing food production to meet increasing demands, while trying to adapt to the changing climate. Rapidly fluctuating global temperatures, uncertainties in precipitation patterns, and increasing intensities and frequencies of natural disasters are acting as major threats that are likely to hamper productivity and yield of major crops in varying degrees. Agriculture is also a key source and sink of greenhouse gas emissions.

In Asia, rice is a defining element of the region’s agroecosystem systems and a crucial staple food and cash crop. Climate change presents a number of specific challenges for rice. Under projected climate change, it is likely that rice yields will suffer considerably and necessitating the early identification and scaling-up of adaptation options. Rice fields are also a major source of methane emissions. A range of approaches and technologies have been developed to help to reduce emissions from rice fields, while also maintaining agricultural productivity and reducing negative impacts on rice agroecosystems and food security. Gaps in capacities, particularly access to scientific knowledge and data for accurate estimation of GHG emissions and sequestration, in rice paddy fields are a key barrier to the scale up of climate-smart rice cultivation approaches and technologies.

In acknowledgement of the challenges and opportunities that tackling climate change presents for the agriculture sectors, agriculture and land-use sectors, comprising crops, livestock, fisheries, aquaculture and forestry, feature prominently in country commitments from Asia under the Paris Agreement. Many countries in the region have specifically highlighted adaptation and mitigation measures in rice landscapes as priority actions for investment and scaling-up.