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Extreme heat, torrential rain, water shortages: what kind of climate change impacts are rural areas experiencing?

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01 Extreme heat, torrential rain, water shortages: what kind of climate change impacts are rural areas experiencing?

By Ke Ya-chih (Project Researcher, Rural Development Foundation)

According to the findings of the 2017 "Taiwan Climate Change Science Report," over the past fifty years, the number of summer days in Taiwan has increased by about 30 days, and the difference between wet and dry seasons has become increasingly pronounced. If the trend of climate change is allowed to continue worsening, in the future as many as one-third of the days each year could see extreme high temperatures, and the rainfall intensity brought by typhoons could also increase by 20 percent. In other words, the downpours of the 823 major flood in central and southern Taiwan in 2018, and the near-40-degree high temperatures across Taiwan in the summer of 2020, are no longer "abnormal" but may become our everyday reality.

Fruit trees that fail to bloom, fish and shrimp that die suddenly, no water available for use, furniture soaked through - these phenomena are actually not far from us at all. They may show up in the prices of ingredients on our dinner tables, or be passed along in word-of-mouth accounts from relatives and friends in our hometowns, and rural areas are the first to experience all kinds of problems brought by climate change. To grasp rural adaptation strategies under climate change, we must first understand the impacts of climate change on rural production, daily life and ecology.

Rising temperatures and increasingly extreme rainfall patterns are setting the optimal stage for disasters that may occur

Temperatures are rising year by year, which not only makes the living environment hot and stifling, but also affects the physiological functions of various organisms in the natural environment. For crop production, winter temperatures that are not low enough may affect flower bud differentiation in spring, causing subsequent problems with fruiting. Vegetables and fruits originally grown on the plains may need to seek suitable growing environments at higher latitudes and higher altitudes. Climate change affects the quality, production season and production area of all kinds of crops. For the aquaculture and livestock industries, animals overheat easily, and infectious pathogens become more active, both increasing the management costs of farmers and fisherfolk.

Under the increasingly polarized trend of rainfall patterns, both too much and too little rain can become disaster-causing factors. The periods without rain are gradually lengthening, and the issue of drought and water shortage has become a hidden concern for various industries. Once water vapor concentrates rapidly and in large amounts, rainfall that in the past might have been spread over several days can now fall all at once within a few hours. Instant heavy rainfall not only makes it difficult to drain farmland and fish ponds in time, but also raises the probability of landslides and debris flows on slopes, and can even increase the sediment turbidity in reservoirs, making it impossible to retain usable clean water.

Elusive sunshine and rain are making farmers' experience-based rule of "living by the sky" inaccurate

Changes in climate patterns disrupt the rhythms of crop growth and also make the quality of agricultural products difficult to control. Chiu Jung-han, whose farm is located in the mountainous area of Taoyuan, grows green bamboo shoots that are abundant in summer as his main crop, and in autumn and winter plants a small amount of organic vegetables. Chiu Jung-han said that last year, during the Qingming Festival, it rained for a month straight, so the bamboo shoots that originally would have been abundant around the Dragon Boat Festival produced less than expected. This year, May and June were all blazing sun, the soil became very dry, the fibers of the shoots became coarse and the texture was relatively poor, which again sharply reduced sales and income.

The organic vegetable growing method, which uses no pesticides and no fertilizers, is also facing challenges under the condition of gradually rising temperatures. In the past, to avoid the greater pest problems of summer, vegetable seedlings were planted only after the beginning of autumn. But this year, even up until the end of August, the bean blister beetle and the small leaf moth, which eat vegetables, could still be seen active in the fields from time to time. As the number of hot days increases and the period of insect activity lengthens, the time suitable for growing vegetables is relatively compressed.

In the past, farmers could grasp the timing of planting and harvesting by relying on experience and observing the solar terms. Now the climate conditions are no longer regular, and it is hard to predict whether it will turn hot or cold next, making judgment and decision-making in field work even more difficult.

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