A general adaptation strategy for climate change impacts on paddy cultivation: special reference to the Japanese context

摘要

Climate changes due to global warming may affect paddy cultivation considerably. Climate changes directly affect rice plant growth, and within paddy cultivation catchments, alter the hydrological regime including flood patterns and water availabilityfor irrigation, and drainage. Although increased atmospheric CO_2 concentrations in the future may enhance plant growth through the CO_2 fertilization effect, impacts of climate change on agriculture are complicated and difficult to predict precisely. This is especially the case for assessing impacts on paddy cultivation, where basin hydrological behavior needs to be understood in detail. Possible adaptations to reduce negative impacts should be tailored to local conditions, which modify climate changeimpacts on paddy cultivation. In this article, climate change impacts on paddy cultivation are reviewed and a general adaptation strategy is discussed with special reference to the Japanese context.