Climate change and potential impacts on agriculture in Bhutan: a discussion of pertinent issues

Abstract

Background: The Himalayan country of Bhutan is typically an agrarian country with about 57% of the people depending on agriculture. However, farming has been constrained by the mountainous topography and rapid changes in environmental variabilities. With climate change, agricultural production and food security is likely to face one of the biggest challenges of the twenty-first century. The country has already been experiencing some impacts of climate change, such as crop loss to unusual outbreaks of diseases and pests, erratic rainfalls, windstorms, hail storms, droughts, flash floods and landslides annually. Results: In 1996, rice farmers in high-altitude areas were devastated with 80-90% crop loss to blast disease. Turcicum leaf blight of maize in 2007 damaged more than 50% of the farmers' harvest. Also, in 2008, a severe windstorm flattened all maize crops belonging to hundreds of households. These were some gruesome reminders of the impacts of climate change that continues to threaten farming in Bhutan. The current agricultural practices are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to their total dependence on monsoon rains and shorter growing periods. The mountainous topography makes the country more vulnerable due to large climatic swings in the mountainous ecosystem. Field evidences have also shown that shifts in cropping pattern are taking place across agroecologies, thus indicating that farming in Bhutan is quite stressed. Further, climate modelling outputs have projected that there is likely to be marked changes in the pattern of precipitation and upward trend in temperatures. Conclusion: In the mountainous topography of Bhutan, food production is a challenge and the impacts of climate change are likely to add to the burdens of farming. Since climate change impacts are already being felt, it is of paramount importance to focus on research works to understand and mitigate the impacts. The information generated from this study could contribute to both short-and long-term planning and policy development works related to food security and climate change in the near future.

Climate change and agriculture in South Asia: adaptation options in smallholder production systems

“…In Bhutan, Kalra et al (2007) Bangladesh < 3 °C Yield loss about 60% 1Yield decrease by 2.6-13.5% 21 Karim et al (1996); 2 Basak et al (2009) > 3 °C Yield loss exceed 60% 1Yield decrease by 0.11-28.7%) 2 1 Karim et al (1996); 2 Basak et al though farming is constrained by the mountainous topography, almost 57% of the people depend on agriculture. The country has been experiencing the impacts of climate change such as crop loss to unusual outbreaks of diseases and pests, erratic rainfalls, windstorms, hailstorms, droughts, flash floods, and landslides (Chhogyel and Kumar 2018). A similar level of yield reduction was also reported in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (Table 1).…”

Prediction of Bhutan's ecological distribution of rice (Oryza sativaL.) under the impact of climate change through maximum entropy modelling

“…This highlights the need for climate smart suitable policies in agriculture development. It has been reported that the rice sector in Bhutan is already experiencing challenges of massive land fallowing due to various reasons, including climate change impacts (DoA, 2016;Chhogyel and Kumar, 2018). Even from the biodiversity point of view, rice ecosystems are one of the most important ecological entities that provide ecological services through nutrient cycling and support to large agrobiodiversity (Settele et al, 2018).…”

“…This highlights the need for climate smart suitable policies in agriculture development. It has been reported that the rice sector in Bhutan is already experiencing challenges of massive land fallowing due to various reasons, including climate change impacts (DoA, 2016; Chhogyel and Kumar, 2018).…”

“…In recent years, there has been major interventions in rice research and development in the country. However, the crop has been hit hard by increased frequency of drought and erratic precipitation (NBC, 2011; Parker et al ., 2017; Chhogyel and Kumar, 2018). Bhutan, by virtue of its location in the Himalayas is reported to have experienced a large impact of climate change (Chhogyel et al ., 2020 a ).…”

Cash transfers, climate shocks vulnerability and households’ resilience in Togo

“…Generally, the impacts of climate shock on households will be felt most in developing countries already facing development challenges [1][2][3][4]. The poorest countries are the most exposed to the impacts of natural disasters (cyclones, tsunamis, floods, drought, land erosion, etc.).…”