Global warming is expected to damage rice production in Korea as increasing areas of the country become suitable for tropical fruit farming.

The Rural Development Administration warned that Korea's rice output will fall to 408.7 kg per 1,000 sq.m in 2040, a 13.6-percent decline compared to 473 kg from 1990 to 2000.

If global warming progresses at the current pace, Korea's rice output could fall 22.2 percent by 2060 and 40.1 percent by 2090, it estimated.

Only tropical rice strains flourish in hot weather, but not the kind Korean consumers prefer. The optimum temperature for the strains most Koreans consume is less than 27 degrees Celsius.

The areas suitable for tropical fruit farming are spreading northward. The cities of Daegu and Busan as well as South Jeolla and Chungcheong provinces produced no tropical fruit until 2014. But last year orchards began producing tropical fruit for the first time ever.