At the two-day seminar, entitled “Climate change - Impacts, Adaptation and Policies in Agriculture”, more than 100 scientists and representatives from 10 non-governmental organisations will discuss the combination of climate change issues with the local socio-economic development plan.

They will also assess the result of a project carried out in Quang Tri province from May, 2009 to April, 2011 under the sponsorship of the Finnish Government, to enhance Quang Tri residents’ capacity to adapt to climate change.

Director of the Central Rural Development Centre Associate Professor Hoang Manh Quan said that Vietnam was among five countries that will be hard hit by climate change and sea level rise.

He cited the World Bank’s warning that if sea level rises by 100cm, five percent of Vietnam’s land and 37sq.m of Quang Tri’s land will be submerged, 11 percent of the nation’s population will be affected and the country’s GDP will be reduced by 10 percent.

In the meantime, Quang Tri will face an increase of 2.8 degrees Celsius, its average rainfall will increase by 7-8 percent and its sea level will rise by 75cm.

Le Anh Tuan from the Can Tho University’s Climate Change Research Institute said that climate change is likely to severely affect 2.4 million ha of agricultural land and 700,000 ha of aquaculture in the Mekong delta.

The nation’s rice output will be cut by 50 percent in the mid-21st century, he said.