Forecast shows El Nino has emerged, Asia braces for crop damage

A closely watched forecast by Japan on Tuesday confirmed the return the El Nino this year. A strong El Nino will roil economies that are heavily dependent on agriculture, particularly India which is already reeling from bad weather. It would also unhinge supply chains of commodities such as rice, corn and palm oil. In fact, the heat is already up in some places in the Asia Pacific. In 2009, the El Nino brought the worst drought in four decades to India. It razed wheat fields in Australia and damaged crops across Asia, causing a surge in food prices.

We’ve already been hit by a three-month dry spell. We could not plant anything since January. All of us here in Taculen are praying for more rains.

Benny Ramos, a rice farmer in North Cotabato in southern Philippines

The El Nino, or a warming of sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific, can lead to scorching weather across Asia and east Africa but heavy rains and floods in South America. This year, the El Nino arrived in spring and is likely to continue into autumn, said the Japan Meteorological Agency, which was the first bureau to project the emergence of an El Nino in 2015.

Asia-Pacific El Nino