How Climate Change Impacts Local Food Production - Shrimp Farming - in Nha Trang, Vietnam - Research Paper Example

Climate change impacts on local food production (Shrimp farming) in Nha Trang, Vietnam Introduction The sun is the major energy source which provides energy inputs to the earth which is necessary for sustaining life on earth. There is a relation between the energy inputs from sun and sustainment of life on earth. If the heat energy radiated from the sun becomes less or more, our planet becomes cold or hot and it is impossible for the living things to sustain their life on earth under extreme weather conditions. In short, a balanced climate is necessary for the sustainment of life on earth. It is a fact that the climate on earth cycles through cold and hot weather based on the rotations and revolutions of sun and earth. Such climate changes never attained any fearful proportions and hence the there were no serious treats for the sustainment of life on earth till the last few centuries. An Inconvenient Truth was a documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim, in 2006, in which former United States Vice President Al Gore tried to educate the citizens about the necessity of preventing global warming. He has mentioned that it is crucial to change the attitude and behavior of the public to counter the climate change problems. In his opinion, climate change problems should be taken as a moral one rather than a political one (An Inconvenient Truth, 2006) But over the last few decades, the balancing between the energy liberated from the sun and the energy reached on earth was destroyed seriously because of many known and unknown reasons and as a result extreme weather conditions started to appear on earth’s atmosphere/surface. Even though the exact reasons for the climate changes on earth is still unknown or controversial, many people believe that the destructions forests, injudicious industrialization, long- and short-term variations in solar intensity, deviations in the Earths orbit, mountain-building and continental drift, and changes in greenhouse gas concentrations etc are the major reasons for the drastic climate changes on earth’s surface. In short, “climate change is already happening and represents one of the greatest environmental, social and economic threats facing the planet” (Climate change, 2010). Climate changes can affect the human life on earth in many ways. In this paper the climate change impacts on local food production in Nah Trang, Vietnam is described. Nah Trang sits within a coastal province in south central Vietnam with an area of 3352.27 km2, coastline of 105km and annual rainfall of 600mm. Shrimp farming is one of the major revenue source for the people in Nah Trang. The lack of alternative livelihoods in the rural regions, together with the abundance of cheap unused land, free access to groundwater, Low labour costs and favourable climate are the ideal conditions for shrimp farming. Local development of shrimp farming has lead to it being a major source of income and employment among the local communities. Given its coastal location and potential sensitivity to factors such as rainfall and temperature regimes, climate change is seen as a potential threat to the shrimp farm industry in Nah Trang. Monitoring of potential impacts of climate change is seen as being a key to the sustainability of local food production (Shrimp farming) in Nha Trang, Vietnam Climate change and local food production Responding to Climate Change has been identified as a key challenge to Vietnam’s development progress. The impacts of Climate Change to Vietnam are serious, and are an imminent threat to poverty reduction as well as the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals. Water resources, agriculture and food security, health issues, and the low lying deltas and coastal areas of Vietnam are most vulnerable to climate change (Vietnam Innovation Day 2010: Climate Change, 2010, p.1) Vietnam is a developing country and like most of the other natural calamities, climate change affects the developing countries more seriously than other countries. Rich countries can tackle the climate change challenges up to certain extent using their financial abilities whereas the spending too much for countering problems like climate change may destroy the economy of the developing countries. Moreover, the negative impacts of climate change such as droughts, floods, strong storms heat waves etc can cause problems to the agriculture, food, water resources and water supplies. Developing strategies to counter the above climate change problems is not an easy task for the developing countries like Vietnam. Vietnamese government approved a National Target Program in Response to Climate Change (NTP) in 2008. The Program’s main objectives are to evaluate the level of climate change impacts on different issues, areas and localities in different stages, and to establish feasible action plans to effectively cope with climate change in the short and long terms. The NTP identifies three major types of impacts, including sea level rise, warming and rainfall changes, and increases in adverse weather phenomena. It also envisions a three – stage plan for its implementation, starting from 2009 until after 2015 (Vietnam Innovation Day 2010: Climate Change, 2010, p.1) Climate changes can affect a country in different ways. In fact global warming is the major reason behind the climate changes. “The average facade temperature of the globe has augmented more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900 and the speed of warming has been almost three folds the century long average since 1970” (Global warming, n. d). The major culprits for global warming are the developed countries, but the major sufferers would be the developing countries like Vietnam. Global warming causes problems to all the living things including animals, humans and plants or vegetation. Increase in atmospheric temperature causes the melting of huge deposits of snow at the Polar Regions and subsequently sea level will rise threatening many coastal cities and islands. Floods, heat waves, tornados etc are some of the major threats occurred because of global warming which can destroy the lives of humans, animals and the vegetation. Climate change is associated with global warming. It is difficult for the living things to survive long if the atmospheric temperature goes beyond certain limits. Our nature is in an equilibrium stage in which the climate is adjusted to sustain the life of all the living things. Any unusual changes happened in the nature can destroy this equilibrium and subsequently climate changes can occur. According to many scholars and experts, the increased quantity of natural disasters like storms, earthquakes, volcano explosions etc are happening because of global warming and subsequent climate changes. Even though climate changes can cause many problems on earth, the most vital problems may occur to agriculture and food production. Both climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes. Atmospheric temperature increase, increased carbon dioxide liberation to atmosphere etc can severely impact the agricultural yields and food production. “Today the amount of carbon dumped globally into the atmosphere corresponds, on average, to one ton per person on the planet, each year. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas – it traps heat radiation that is attempting to escape from Earth” (GLOBAL WARMING: The Rise of CO2 & Warming, 2002). It is scientifically proved that gases try to escape from the atmosphere when it gets heated. In other words, escaping of heated gases is a natural mechanism to keep a balanced climate on earth’s atmosphere. On the other hand, Carbon dioxide gas has the tendency to block the passage of these heated gases or radiations from atmosphere and thereby the heat radiations accumulate in the atmosphere and the temperature may rise. Eilperin (2009) has mentioned that the earth’s surface temperature has been increased around 0.750 C during the last century itself and the atmospheric temperature may even go up by 6 degrees before the end of the current century (Eilperin, 2009). Atmospheric temperature rise may melt the huge amounts of ice blocks on Polar Regions which may result in floods and sea level rise which is not good for the agriculture or food production. Scientists already proved that the height of Everest decreases and also the Snow Mountains disappearing slowly due to global warming. Sea level raise and increased extreme weather intensities may destroy the agricultural yields. Climate Change and Shrimp farming in Nha Trang, Vietnam It is foreseen that Vietnam will be strongly affected by future climate changes in terms of increased rainfall, increased number of typhoons, and especially an increase in sea level. Vietnam is that country in South East Asia that will be most affected as a major part of Vietnam is low-land and big delta areas as the Mekong River delta. A sea level rise here of just 1 m will flood and area of about 15.000-20.000 km2. The present project focuses on the ecology of estuaries, which is where fresh water from the river enters the ocean. There are more than 250 large and small estuaries along the Vietnamese coast, and millions of people depend on the estuaries for transportation, aquaculture, fisheries, shrimp farming etc (Climate change and estuarine ecosystem in Vietnam, n. d) Perhaps, Viet Nam is the most vulnerable country in the world to climate changes because of its increased dependence on agricultural yields for the revenue. Even though the Vietnamese government has taken serious measures to help the poor Vietnamese farmers to come out from drastic situations, the government is helpless in preventing the climate change process. According to a report for Oxfam, poor men and women in Vietnam are already experiencing the consequences of the climate changing, and in many cases are ill-equipped to reduce, or adapt to, the consequences. They will be particularly vulnerable as the number of extreme weather events increases in intensity and/or frequency. In many villages women are hit the hardest by natural disasters. They often cannot swim, have fewer assets to turn to for alternative livelihoods when crops are destroyed, and have fewer employment opportunities away from the home. The perception of many villagers and local leaders is that the climate is already changing. In particular, they talk of the unpredictability of the weather and the intensity of weather events compared to previous years. The particular impacts of weather events vary from province to province, and from district to district. The main problems were typhoons, unpredictable weather, and the threat of salt water intrusion from sea level rise and other factors. Awareness of climate change and its causes varies significantly between districts, communities, villages and individual households. But in general awareness is restricted to a few experts, some local authorities and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) (A report for Oxfam, 2008, p. 3-4). Shrimp farming is one of the major revenue sources for the poor Vietnamese farmers. Because of the suitable natural resources and the weather climate Shrimp farming has gained immense popularity in Vietnam. (Lebel et al, 2002) The above figure illustrates the growth of shrimp farming in Vietnam and its neighboring country Thailand from 1970 onwards (See appendix for more details). A steep increase in shrimp farming is recorded in these countries from 1990 onwards. In fact Shrimp aquaculture is going to become the major industry in Vietnam and the shrimp production systems were thoroughly restructured by the Vietnam government recently. Vietnam is currently seeking the experience of other major players in shrimp farming to maximize their shrimp production. Thailand is one country which is assisting Vietnam in increasing their shrimp production. “The shrimp production in Vietnam in 2008 was estimated to be approximately 10,000 tonnes, most of which was consumed on the domestic market. Between 2004 and 2008 Penaeid shrimp production increased from 281,800 to 381,728 tonnes” (Dr. Tien and Griffiths, n. d, p.4). From the above statistics, it is evident that how dominant is the role of shrimp production in boosting the economic growth of Vietnam. Even though most of the resources available in Vietnam are suitable for shrimp farming, the major challenge comes from drastic climate changes. (The details given in the Appendix at the end of this paper summarize some the main geographic and climatic characteristics of Vietnam). The Mekong Delta region of Vietnam has temperatures typically ranging from 20 – 350 Celsius, which enables farmers to culture two crops of shrimp annually. Ca Mau province, which has over 250,000 hectares of shrimp ponds and is the country’s principal shrimp producing province, specializes in black tiger shrimp production. In the northern region of the country there is a distinct cold season from November to March, with temperatures ranging from 9 – 390 Celsius, so farmers are usually only able to culture one crop of shrimp annually (Dr. Tien and Griffiths, n. d, p.5) The above statistics clearly shows the role of atmospheric temperature in controlling the shrimp production. Both extreme hot and extreme cold conditions are not suitable for shrimp production. But, because of the concerns of global warming and climate changes, shrimp farming in Nha Trang or Vietnam is facing stiff challenges. Earlier, the summer, winter, spring etc like seasons were repeated in an order so that the farmers could have anticipate the weather changes and deice when to start shrimp farming and when to take the yield. But the severe uncertainties in the weather cycles or seasons is causing problems to the shrimp farmers in deciding about the starting and ending dates of shrimp farming. Flooding and extended droughts which are the bi-products of climate change can cause severe problems to the shrimp farming systems in Vietnam. As mentioned earlier, because of the increased atmospheric temperature due to global warming, the heavy ice blocks in the Polar Regions may melt which may result in unexpected weather calamities like flood. Unexpected and untimely arrival of flood can destroy shrimp farming. Same way, in some years, the drought season may extend beyond the normal periods. Under such circumstances, shrimp farmers may face extreme difficulties in preserving their shrimp farms. Fresh water is one of the major necessities of shrimp farming. But the sea level rise due to global warming and climate changes can result in salty sea water entering the fresh water sources. In short, global warming and sea level rise resulted in decreasing the number of fresh water resources in Vietnam. Since Vietnam is comparatively situated at lower levels than the sea, sea level rise can result in sinking a substantial volume of Vietnamese land. Scientists are extremely concerned about the sea salt water getting into the fresh water sources like rivers and canals. The local people are also worried about the intrusion of salt water into their shrimp farming yards. The concentration of salt in the rivers has increased to 4ppt in some parts of Vietnam, the point at which rice cannot survive. In other areas not previously affected, it has reached 1 or 2ppt which seriously affects orchards and nurseries. Official DARD figures for economic losses as a result of increased salinisation are alarming: in 2003 salt water intrusion caused 12 billion dong’s worth of damage (US$750,000) in the province, and 16,000 households had no fresh water. By 2005 that figure had risen to 570 billion. The unpredictability of the salt content also makes prawn farming more difficult. You need to regulate the salt content – about 15 ppt for baby prawns, then 10 ppt for more mature prawns, but it is difficult to do this when the saline content is high (A report for Oxfam, 2008, p. 28-29). The increased demand for prawns and shrimp from western countries and the suitable domestic climates and resources forced majority of the Vietnamese to actively engage in shrimp farming. But the changing climate and its uncertainties about the future climate made the poor Vietnamese susceptible to the income loss. Moreover, huge losses from shrimp and prawn farming prevented many of the Vietnamese from continuing their farming. Apart from losses from farming, natural calamities like typhoon (another bi-product of global warming and climate changes), hit the Vietnamese people severely than any other people or region in the world. Proper planning is necessary to tackle the climate change problems, but most of the Vietnamese are illiterates and hence they have fewer abilities in forecasting or planning future events. “According to the World Bank’s 2008 Report, Viet Nam ranks eighth in the ten most vulnerable countries in East Asia to weather extremes and 70% of the country’s population live in areas subject to water-related natural disasters” (A report for Oxfam, 2008, p. 13). Do Huu Duc Anh, director of Van Depending Co. said in recent years, due to weather changes, environmental pollution, the company provides no guarantee shrimp cleaner shrimp disease ... so a lot of dead shrimp the breeding process. This has affected the economy of animal husbandry as well as the prestige of the profession as seed production. To create trust for farmers, VAN Depending encourage buyers shrimp samples tested before deciding on a purchase (Prawn, shrimp post Viet Nam, 2010) Shrimps produced in Vietnam were of highest quality when it is compared to the shrimps produced from other parts of the world. But at present, the shrimp farmers are not much concentrating on ensuring the quality of the shrimps they are producing in order to decrease the production costs. There is no guarantee for them to get adequate return on their investments made on shrimp farming because of the unexpected weather calamities. So, most of the farmers nowadays are not ready to spend too much on taking precautionary measures to prevent the diseases to shrimps or to give enough food to the shrimps. Conclusions Vietnam is one of the major vulnerable countries in the world to weather calamities. Most of the Vietnamese land area is situated below the sea level and hence sea level raises due to global warming may affect the Vietnamese people in different ways. Agriculture is the main revenue source for the Vietnamese and among different types of crops; shrimp farming is one of the major ones. Vietnam is blessed with vast number of fresh water resources like rivers and canals which is necessary for shrimp farming. But sea level rises due to global warming resulted in salty water get into the fresh water sources. Apart from sea level rise, typhoon, extreme weather conditions, unpredictability in climatic seasons etc are also causing problems to the shrimp farming in Vietnam. References 1. A report for Oxfam, (October 2008), Viet Nam Climate Change, Adaptation and Poor People, [Online], Available at: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/climate_change/downloads/vietnam_cc_adaptation_poverty.pdf p.3-29 [Accessed on 05 October 2010] 2. An Inconvenient Truth: A Video Review at Visual Hollywood, (2006), [Online], Available at: http://www.visualhollywood.com[Accessed on 05 October 2010] 3. Climate change, (2010), [Online], Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/home_en.htm [Accessed on 05 October 2010] 4. Climate change and estuarine ecosystem in Vietnam, (n. d), [Online], Available at: http://www.climeeviet.com/objectives/[Accessed on 05 October 2010] 5. Dr. Tien V D and Griffiths D, (n. d) Shrimp Aquaculture in Vietnam: Best Practice and Future Direction, [Online], Available at: www.aseanshrimpalliance.net/Vietnam%20country%20report.doc p.21, [Accessed on 05 October 2010] 6. Eilperin, J. (2009). New UN Climate Study Predicts Nightmare 6.3F Temperature Rise by End of Century. [Online], Available at: http://www.greenchange.org/article.php?id=5003[Accessed on 05 October 2010] 7. Global Warming (n. d). [Online], Available at: http://www.globalwarming.org.in/ [Accessed on 05 October 2010] 8. GLOBAL WARMING: The Rise of CO2 & Warming. (2002). [Online], Available at: http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/globalchange/global_warming/03.html [Accessed on 05 October 2010] 9. Lebel L, Hoang Tri N, Saengnoree A, Pasong S, Buatama U, and Thoa, L K (2002)Industrial Transformation and Shrimp Aquaculture in Thailand and Vietnam: Pathways to Ecological, Social, and Economic Sustainability? AMBIO A Journal of the Human Environment 31(4):311-323. 2002 doi: 10.1579/0044-7447-31.4.311, Published by Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 10. Prawn, shrimp post Viet Nam, (2010), [Online], Available at: http://le9.dk/?q=node/1952 [Accessed on 05 October 2010] 11. Vietnam Innovation Day 2010: Climate Change, (2010), [Online], Available at: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTVIETNAM/Resources/CompetitionRegulations.pdf [Accessedon 05 October 2010] Appendix Figure 5. Comparison of the structure of variable costs for shrimp production among 5 regions of Thailand and Vietnam. The other category includes pond preparation, maintenance, and other smaller items. Labor includes hired and family labor as a noncash cost (Lebel et al, 2002) Intensive shrimp ponds, Nha Trang, Vietnam (Lebel et al, 2002) Characteristics of shrimp farms and aquaculture production in 5 regions of Vietnam and Thailand (Lebel et al, 2002) Packaging at a shrimp processing factory in Qanh Ninh, northern Vietnam (Lebel et al, 2002) Table 1. Geographic and climatic summary for Vietnam Parameter Value for Vietnam Land area 330,000 km2 Coastline 3,444 km EEZ 1,000,000 km2 Climate: North: 9-390 Celsius South 20-350 Celsius Rainfall: 2,200 mm year-1 Ponds 160,000 hectares Lakes and reservoirs 340,000 hectares Rice fields 580,000 hectares Coastal zone: mangrove forest, bays, lagoons, inter-tidal area 700,000 hectares Rivers and canals 1000’s of km in length Major river systems Mekong River, Red River and many smaller river systems (Dr. Tien and Griffiths, n. d., p.21) Read More