Climate Change Impacts on Rice Farming Systems in Northwestern Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has achieved tremendous progress since 1950 in crop production and food availability. Yields grew at an impressive rate until leveling off in the mid-eighties. Sri Lanka's population is anticipated to grow in the coming decades, creating an ever-greater demand for food security on the household, sub-district, regional, and national scales.The agricultural sector in Sri Lanka is vulnerable to climate shocks. An unusual succession of droughts and floods from 2008 to 2014 has led to both booms and busts in agricultural production, which were reflected in food prices. In both instances, the majority of farmers and consumers were adversely affected.At present the rice-farming systems are under stress due to inadequate returns for the farmers and difficulty in coping with shocks due to climate, pests, and diseases, and prices for produce. There are government price-support mechanisms, fertilizer-subsidy schemes, and crop insurance schemes, but the levels of the supports are modest and often do not effectively reach the farmers

The AgMIP Coordinated Climate-Crop Modeling Project (C3MP): Methods and Protocols

Climate change is expected to alter a multitude of factors important to agricultural systems, including pests, diseases, weeds, extreme climate events, water resources, soil degradation, and socio-economic pressures. Changes to carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]), temperature, andwater (CTW) will be the primary drivers of change in crop growth and agricultural systems. Therefore, establishing the CTW-change sensitivity of crop yields is an urgent research need and warrants diverse methods of investigation. Crop models provide a biophysical, process-based tool to investigate crop responses across varying environmental conditions and farm management techniques, and have been applied in climate impact assessment by using a variety of methods (White et al., 2011, and references therein). However, there is a significant amount of divergence between various crop models’ responses to CTW changes (R¨otter et al., 2011). While the application of a site-based crop model is relatively simple, the coordination of such agricultural impact assessments on larger scales requires consistent and timely contributions from a large number of crop modelers, each time a new global climate model (GCM) scenario or downscaling technique is created. A coordinated, global effort to rapidly examine CTW sensitivity across multiple crops, crop models, and sites is needed to aid model development and enhance the assessment of climate impacts (Deser et al., 2012)..

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The following sections are included: Introduction The C3MP Methodology and Participation Protocols The C3MP Database and Evaluation C3MP Phase 1: Lessons Learned and Initial Findings Continuing C3MP Efforts and Future Work Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ReferencesThe following sections are included: Introduction The C3MP Methodology and Participation Protocols The C3MP Database and Evaluation C3MP Phase 1: Lessons Learned and Initial Findings Continuing C3MP Efforts and Future Work Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ReferencesNot Availabl

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The following sections are included: Introduction The C3MP Methodology and Participation Protocols The C3MP Database and Evaluation C3MP Phase 1: Lessons Learned and Initial Findings Continuing C3MP Efforts and Future Work Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ReferencesThe following sections are included: Introduction The C3MP Methodology and Participation Protocols The C3MP Database and Evaluation C3MP Phase 1: Lessons Learned and Initial Findings Continuing C3MP Efforts and Future Work Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ReferencesNot Availabl