A review of the negative impacts of climate change on the production of paddy in Sri Lanka and the climate change adaptation strategies to overcome those negative impacts.

Abstract

The negative consequences of climatic factors on paddy production have seriously impacted many small-scale farmers, as the agriculture sector is mainly known to be affected by the weather and climate in Sri Lanka. This review is mainly focused on the negative impacts of climate change on paddy production in Sri Lanka and the best adaptation strategies that can be applied to overcome those impacts. Therefore, one hundred and thirty research articles were reviewed in Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, the dry zone contributes 60% of the annual rice production. Achieving a grain yield of 8–10 tons of paddy per hectare in well-managed irrigated lowland rice lands in the Dry and Intermediate Zones of Sri Lanka is certainly practicable with current technology. The negative impacts on rice production are due to high temperature-accelerated spikelet sterility that can be aggravated by rising CO2. Similarly, rising temperatures, either independently or with the combination of changing rainfall, will also cause a drop in paddy production. The past studies suggest that temperature rise by 4°C, together with a 50% rainfall intensification, led to a 32.13% decline in average rice yield, and 27.57% will be reduced with the combined effect of a 4°C temperature increase and a 50% decrease in rainfall. Climate adaptation strategies such as ensuring crop insurance, cultivating short-term paddy crops and drought-resistant crops, improving irrigation efficiency, changing the planting date, adopting aerobic growth conditions for rice varieties, introducing agricultural practices combined with endogenous paddy varieties, cultivating short- to medium-duration cultivars, introducing rice varieties that match high CO2 concentrations, and introducing short-duration rice varieties were the findings to overcome the negative impacts of climate change on paddy production in Sri Lanka. These adaptation strategies should be connected in a proper way to have a connection with the national development policies and strategies to have an improved structure for a great yield. Further, the outcomes suggest that rural farmers should be given better awareness and knowledge of climate change to combat its negative impacts and the need for a good policy framework to ensure the stability of paddy production in Sri Lanka while moving to climate-smart agriculture practices.