5.2.4 Impact on agriculture and aquaculture The two sectors of agriculture and aquaculture can be seen as the two main components of rural livelihood in SEA river deltas and coastal areas (World Bank, 2013a). To analyze the impacts of climate change, we have to distinguish again between the impacts of EWEs or the slow-onset impacts, like a change in the mean temperature. In the Philippines, about 13 million hectares of agricultural area produce a wide variety of fruits, grains and vegetables (PAGASA, 2014). More than half of the agricultural area is used to grow rice and corn, which is the staple food of the Philippines. On the one hand, agriculture in Philippines contributes only about 4% to the national GDP but more than 72% of the population are engaged in agriculture and the sector provides 1/3 of the country’s total employment (World Bank, 2010). Aquaculture and fisheries are of great importance for the coastal areas – they deliver according to FAO (2010) 36% of dietary animal protein in SEA. The World Bank (2013a) denotes a strong increase in the importance of this affordable source of food in SEA. Agricultural production is under pressure from climate change for many reasons, i.e. salinity intrusion, inundation, SLR, TCs, or temperature increase during the growing phase (Dawe et al., 2008; Wassmann et al., 2009). Khan et al. (2011) mentioned that saltwater intrusion due to flooding by TCs can decrease agricultural yield, which they analyzed for Bangladesh (1/5 of the total area of the country is affected by salinity). Figure 4: Vulnerability maps of rice (left) and corn (right) producing areas in the Philippines (PAGASA, 2014). As agriculture strongly depends on the patterns of precipitation (mostly the rainfall of the southwest monsoon (JAS); Villafuerte et al., 2014b) many researchers have analyzed this relationship. E.g. Warren (2013) analyzed the vulnerability of the agricultural sector to droughts. Villafuerte et al. (2014a) also argues that heavy rain or drought conditions are directly affecting the agricultural sectors of the country – and therefore the economy of the Philippines. Warren (2013) analyzed the 20