Tunisia in North Africa is two oceans away from the Philippines and one of the most vulnerable to climate change. But a changing weather pattern does not discriminate between continents.
The Agence France Press featured the African country early this week, reporting on how Tunisia’s 3,000-year history of olive farming was under threat, with warnings that production could be halved by 2030 because of the extremes of climate change, from floods to droughts.
Tunisia, according to the story, would likely register record olive oil exports of 312,000 tons, making it the world’s leading shipper of the prized product for the first time. But the news feature cautioned that climate change could wreak havoc in the African state, where just a few hundred kilometers separate the fertile lands on the shore from the first dunes of the Sahara desert.
One Tunisian farmer has already noticed the impact of climate change, especially rising temperatures, on crop production. Severe drought has occurred more frequently from one out of five years to an average of two in five. The frequency of drought will impact severely on Tunisia’s olive oil production. About 80 percent of Tunisia’s 80 million trees are not irrigated and depend entirely on rainwater.
Tunisia’s dilemma is not unusual and can well happen in an agricultural country like the Philippines. The current drought in the Philippines will worsen in the early part of 2016 and put pressure on authorities to put up so-called mitigating measures to help affected farmers.
The drought this early has prompted the Agriculture Department to increase rice imports, as the country’s output is certain to drop due to lack of irrigation facilities.
Climate change, as being discussed in a global conference in Paris today, will affect farmers the hardest. Authorities by now should increase the funding for more water impounding structures and mini dams to prepare farmers for the next episode of El Niño amid global warming. They should also focus on the development of rice and other crop species that are more resistant to drought.
Filipino farmers deserve the most help in the new climate order. Their farm output remains a key component of the economy.