China
September 14, 2010

Author: Hu Qifeng
Source: Guangming Daily

It was pointed out by experts that the rise of 1℃ in temperature would lead to shortening the growing period of rice and winter wheat by 7-8 days and 17 days respectively, and affect the yield level directly. How could we respond to various negative effects of global climate change on China’s grain production? As the only subject in the field of agriculture of the National Key Scientific Research Program on Global Changes of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the Research Project on the Mechanisms of and Adaptation to the Impact of Climate Change on China’s Grain Production System was officially initiated at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) recently. This project will provide theoretical basis and technical support for formulation of grain production policies and actions in response to climate change in China.

Research Fellow Tang Huajun, Chief Scientist of this project and Vice President of CAAS, said that this five-year research project would realize nationwide collaboration, with the major grain producing regions of the Northeast, the Huanghuaihai Plain, the mid- and down-stream of the Yangtze River, South China and the Northwest as the research areas, and rice, wheat and corn crops as the research objects. It would focus on six aspects, including the influence process of climate change on spatio-temporal variation of the resources factors of water, heat and soil for grain production, the mechanisms of and adaptation to the impact of climate change on food crop planting systems and geographical distribution, and the evolution pattern of spatio-temporal layout of agricultural droughts in the context of climate change.

Website: http://www.agri.gov.cn

Published: September 14, 2010