November 8, 2010

Climate change threatens China's grain crop

Due to climate change, there could be a drop of 10% in China's grain harvest over the next two decades and this in turn would threaten the country's food security, according to a leading agriculture expert.

If climate change remained unchecked, crop production could decrease from 5-10% by 2030, Tang Huajun, deputy dean of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences warned.

The output of the country's three main foods; rice, wheat and corn, may suffer a 37% decline in the latter part of this century if the government fails to take effective measures to address the impact of climate change, Tang said.

China plans to increase the production of grains from 530.8 million tonnes in 2009 to 550 million tonnes in 2020 to ensure food security for the world's most populous country of more than 1.3 billion.

The environmental watchdog Greenpeace said in a recent report that China's food supply would be insufficient by 2030 and its overall food production could fall by 23% by 2050.

Tang is the chief scientist for a government project launched in September to study the impact of climate change on China's grain production over the past 20 years at 11 research stations in the north and south of the country.

"Agriculture has been the worst hit by climate change and some negative effects have become more obvious due to rising temperatures and water shortages over the past 10 years," Tang said.

Drought is the biggest threat to China's grain harvest, causing an annual average loss of 15-25 million tonnes from 1995-2005, or 4-8% of the country's annual output, Tang added.