Climate change and agriculture

ENVIRONMENT WATCH
Pat Ananayo

(The author is chief of the Dept. of Agrriculture-Cordillera’s agribusiness and marketing assistance division. He is an active member of the OISCA International, a nongovernment organization based in Tokyo, Japan concerned on environment and development.)

Just like any other serious socio-economic problems in the world, climate change is one of the current alarming global concerns of all countries considering its effect to the present and future human existence.

If we look back at the ancient religious history, the Holy Bible reveals that God created the world perfect, putting in place a well balanced eco-system where each creature perfectly depend from each other in order to sustain their existence. However, various researchers revealed that even in less populated and forested areas, there are various extinct as well as endangered plants and animal species.

This may be attributed to Charles Darwin’s theory on the Survival of the Fittest. But the extinction of many plant and animal species can be due to the unfavourable impacts of climate change. It should be noted that the extinction of one living organism will affect the sustainable survival of the other.

Basically, climate change started from man’s clearing the forest with the goal of helping improve his own life from his traditional to modernizing his ways of living. But even before modernization started, serious climate change happened during the early dawn of civilization. The Holy Bible further revealed that various plaques affected man’s lives during the ancient time while the Great Flood almost wiped out mankind during the time of Noah.

Today’s generation, while man is enhancing his knowledge modernizing his ways of living, various studies show that the global climate is fast changing. Old folks who noticed the changing climate attributed this to anger from the Almighty God and or from spirits due to the fast destruction of the forest. These are shown by strong typhoons, floods, landslides, tidal waves, pests and diseases outbreaks directly and or indirectly affecting either or both man, plants and animals.

But what are the relationships of climate change with agriculture and population? Basically, man lives on food. Foods are directly produced from the forest. As what God said to man, “Go ye and multiply”, man then continue to multiply. Due to the fast increase of population, more and more food is needed. And man’s only source is his old world that he has to develop in order to survive.

Hence, man has to encroach the forest, cut trees and develop the earth’s surface for food production, expand forest clearing for his housing needs, and today’s generation; the development of road networks, public conveyances, recreation facilities, dams and others that requires forest clearings. And as man continue to increase; these facilities need to be further expanded. At the end, man will be losing his natural environment, completely destroying the eco-system. And since the environment is not balanced, climate then is affected.

In agriculture, productivity and profitability are seriously affected. Not only due to typhoons, but also soil erosions and depletion as well as eco-system that has much to say about their significant contribution to food production. Displaced insects and other wild animals living in the thick forest migrate to the developed farms for survival. Others go to houses and cities not only for shelter but also scour for food.

What man should be very much concerned is his sustainable existence in this planet. It may depend on how far he can develop practical and applicable technologies that well immediately help restore ecological balance. Even without an official statistical figure, it is common knowledge that out of the present billions of world population, not even five percent are actively involved in environmental conservation. Hence environmental destruction is so fast than rehabilitation due to the uncontrollable population growth.

Man may not have been seriously concerned on the proper conservation of his environmental resources but is now concerned on how to help prevent disasters affecting human survival. As long as the environment will continue to be damaged, climate change will continue to happen. Before our world leaders raised the issue of the changing global climate, our old folks have already been talking about the climate change especially when during Christmas season and summer, where typhoons are already happening.

Today, pests and diseases outbreaks have been regularly observed and that crops productivity went down. Global temperature drastically changed. Gone were the days when we feel the natural cool temperature and fresh air from the forest. With these many emerging environmental problems caused by the disturbed and angry nature, the historians’ common statement that “history repeats itself”, is true because what have been happening during the biblical period, is at present, happening again.

But what could be the probable causes? Various environmentalists say that the changing climate is attributed to the various environmental destructions caused by man’s socio-economic activities within the earth’s surface.

One of the basic answers is a morally accepted birth rate control not abortion, sustaining a specific population which this planet earth can sustainably support without causing too much damage to the environment that may induce climate change. Through this approach, man should not go beyond using technologies that will destroy ecological balance or else, population control is of no use if, even with a small population will seriously destroy ecological balance.

At present, there has been a serious concern on increasing food production. But apparently, productivity of various crops and even livestock has been affected by the drastic effects of climate change. As a result, many experts are recommending new technologies to help enhance food production. Genetic engineering as well as other biotechnology innovations are being continuously developed and introduced in the field just to help increase food production.

But these are not safety justifications that these technologies will help restore better and sound environment. Health and morally conscious individuals as well as organic agriculture movers are totally against the production, commercialization and consumption of genetically engineered crops and livestock knowing that these seriously contribute to unwanted climate change.

Yet these people cannot also provide the answer to increasing needs of the ever increasing population. Sustaining pure organic agriculture practices without sustaining a level of world population which organic agriculture can feed will also result to serious hunger and malnutrition.

Hence, increasing food production is almost equal to inducing global climate change. Whatever the future consequences are, only nature can tell. But the saddest part of it is that man, who is improving his way of survival are the very victims of unfavourable climate change. It you develop your environment, man may go hungry.

But if man increases food production, he suffers all the consequences of natural calamities as a result of climate change. But it is always nice to note that, climate change started from man’s greediness to improve and modernize his selfish ways of living. Hence, this planet earth also found the opportunity to fast track her own ways of restoring its natural climate by taking thousands of human lives every year to fertilize the dying soil that abundant plants and animals will again subdue the earth and restore its original climate.