At the end of a recent conference in Beijing on global climate change and agriculture, the deputy dean of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Tang Huajun, stated that lower yields of the country’s three main crops: rice wheat and corn, is likely if the country does not take effective measures to, “offset the impacts of climate change.” He stated that extreme weather, along with an increase in plant disease and insect populations will present serious threats to China’s food supply.
The story goes on to say, though China has experienced its eighth consecutive year of record harvests, it is losing arable lands to climate change and suffering increasing water shortages. The nation’s agricultural professionals are expressing concern about the future of China’s domestic food production. Rice yields are expected to decrease 4 ~ 14 % by 2050; wheat, 2 ~ 20%; and corn, 1 ~ 23%. These three crops account for eighty percent of the country’s total grain production.
November 21st, 2011 → 3:10 pm
[...] 09 November 2011: Climate change threatens drop in grain harvest [...]