Apart from the recent storms and typhoons that have ravaged Southeast Asian agriculture and food production since Cyclone Nargis in 2008, it is hard to envisage the climate extremes that affect Southeast Asia, where 30 per cent all world rice is produced.

The region is home to two of the world’s largest rice exporters, Thailand and Vietnam, which account for slightly more than half of world rice exports. Indonesia and the Philippines also produce significant amounts for domestic consumption, but very little leaves their borders.

We argue that one perfect story about the collapse of a food industry as a result of climate extremes is the story of an Australian rice-production center, the Riverina region of southern New South Wales.

…Jonatan A. Lassa is a research fellow and Goh Tian an associate research fellow at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS) at the  Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.