Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture - Climate Resilient Agriculture for Ensuring Food Security - page 71

Table 4.11 Selected tropical cyclones of the past decade and their agricultural impacts
Date

Location Cyclone name

Agricultural impact

Feb-Apr 2000 Madagascar Eline, Gloria (Feb),

Hudah (Apr)

Combined losses owing to three cyclones:
149,441 ha rice (7 % of annual
production), 5,000 ha maize, 155,000 ha
cereals (FAO 2000 )

2006-2007 Madagascar Bondo (Dec 2006), Clovis

(Jan 2007), Favio (Jan 2007),
Gamede (Feb 2007), Indlala
(Mar 2007)

Combined losses: 90,000 ha of crop (IFRC
2007 ); 80 % of vanilla production lost to
Indlala alone (FAO 2007 )

2007 Mozambique Favio Thousands of hectares of crop destroyed

(FAO 2007 )

Nov 2007 Bangladesh Sidr 1.6 million acres of cropland damaged;

>25 % winter rice crop destroyed (United
Nations 2007 )

May 2008 Irrawaddy Delta,

Myanmar (Burma)

Nargis Estimated 4 m storm surge inundated

coastal areas and regions up to 40 km
inland. Soil salination made 50,000 acres
of rice cropland now unfi t for planting. Loss
of rice seed, fertilizers, farm machinery,
and valuable land threatened the winter
2008/2009 rice crop including exports to
neighboring countries (FAO 2009 )

coastal regions most at risk from fl ooding.
In 2007, cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh costing
3,500 lives, and in 2008 cyclone Nargis caused
130,000 deaths in Myanmar. The agricultural
impacts of these and other recent cyclones are
shown in Table 4.11 .
Although many studies focus on the negative
impacts, tropical cyclones can also bring bene-
fi ts. In many arid regions in the tropics, a large
portion of the annual rain comes from cyclones.
It is estimated that tropical cyclones contribute to
15-20 % of South Florida's annual rainfall,
which can temporarily end severe regional
droughts. Examples of such storms are hurricane
Gabrielle (2001) and tropical storm Fay (2008),
which provided temporary relief from the 2000-
2001 and 2006-2009 droughts, respectively. As
much as 30 cm of rainfall was recorded in some
regions from tropical storm Fay, without which
regions would have faced extreme water short-
age, wildfi res, and potential saltwater intrusion
into coastal freshwater aquifers. Tropical
cyclones can also help replenish water supplies to
inland regions: cyclone Eline, which devastated
agriculture in Madagascar in February 2000, later
made landfall in South Africa and contributed

signifi cantly to the rainfall in the semidesert
region of southern Namibia.
Climate modeling studies contributing to the
IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) suggest
tropical cyclones may become more intense in
the future with stronger winds and heavier
precipitation.

4.7 Livestock Production

Climate change poses serious threats to live-
stock production. Increased temperatures, shifts
in rainfall distribution, and increased frequency
of extreme weather events are expected to
adversely affect livestock production and pro-
ductivity around the world. These adverse
impacts can be the direct result of increased heat
stress and reduced water availability. Indirect
impacts can result from the reduced quality and
availability of feed and fodder, the emergence of
livestock diseases, and greater competition for
resources with other sectors (Thornton and
Gerber 2010 ).
The effects of climate change on livestock are
likely to be widespread. The most serious impacts