Increasingly Unpredictable Rainfall, Weather Patterns Hurting E. Timor Food Production

[hatrack]

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The biggest problem East Timor faces is how the effects of climate change are contributing to food insecurity. About 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line and about three-quarters of all East Timorese are in rural areas, most of them reliant on subsistence farming to survive. The seasons are unpredictable now, which spells bad news for farmers, said Mario Ximenes, head of the National Directorate for International Environmental Affairs.

The temperature is rising and it is likely that there will be less rainfall in the wet season and more in the dry season, which will wreak havoc on planting and harvesting cycles, he said. "According to a study done , the temperature in East Timor will rise between 0.88 and 3.68ºC by 2070," he said. The average annual temperature in East Timor ranges from 15ºC in mountainous areas to 28ºC in sites closer to sea level. A significant increase in temperature will disrupt rain patterns. "In the agricultural sector, farmers say they have already been affected by climate change, primarily by the rainfall," he added.

Drought in 2001-2002 and a late rainy season between 2002 and 2003 led to a whopping 34 percent decline that year in the production of maize, the country’s most abundant food crop. Problems like these have been acknowledged by top government brass. Foreign minister Zacarias Albano da Costa last month said that East Timor is "affected by changing weather patterns and is following the climate change debate.

"At the national level, we are naturally concerned with preservation of our environment and place importance in reforestation and protection of the environment," he added. Speaking at September’s United Nations high-level meeting on climate change in New York, President Jose Ramos-Horta said that East Timor faced a "severe threat" from climate change. "Our weather is becoming increasingly strange and unpredictable. There seem to be more downpours, landslides and record floods than in living memory. Experience from our farmers suggests that there is increasing variability of climate and traditional practices and planting cycles no longer fit with the changing weather patterns."

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http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48925

[kestrel91316]

1. Um, cross out "E. Timor" and plug in "Earth's".