Building agricultural resilience to extreme weathers

Despite being the world's second-largest economy, China is still a developing country and thus vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, with its agricultural sector being especially vulnerable to extreme weather events.

In recent years, the rate of rising temperatures has been faster in China than the global average, with climate conditions becoming more complex due to the rising frequency of extreme weather events such as unusually high precipitation rates, increasing typhoons, extreme heat and cold waves. In particular, there has been an increase in regional and periodic floods and droughts across the country, seriously affecting agricultural production. This has made it even more important to take measures to minimize the effects of extreme weather events on agriculture.

The central government attaches great importance to adaptation to climate change and has taken a series of measures to safeguard the agricultural sector.

The government issued the "National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2035" in 2022, specifying initiatives to optimize the utilization of agricultural resources, intensify the measures to boost the resilience of the agricultural ecosystems to climate change and establish a climate change-adapted food security system.

To mitigate the effects of climate change on agriculture and better respond to natural disasters, China has established a preliminary natural disaster monitoring and early warning system to assess the impact of natural disasters, and formulate disaster prevention and relief plans. By strengthening the monitoring and early warning systems, as well as the mechanism to prevent and control pests and diseases, China aims to control the regional losses within 5 percent.

China realizes the importance of science and technology in adapting to climate change, especially in the field of agriculture. It also realizes the need to strengthen research and development in science and technology, particularly in projects aimed at collecting and studying germplasm adapted to extreme weather events; developing high-yield, drought-resistant and high-quality crop varieties; and devising new planting technology models. Not to mention that it has been promoting the cultivation of drought-resistant crops and use of water-saving technologies to mitigate the effects of extreme weather events.

In terms of international multilateral cooperation, China has implemented several international projects on smart agriculture in cooperation with international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank. These projects have established demonstration areas based on the climatic characteristics of different regions, including the main grain-producing areas in Northeast and North China, and the alpine grasslands in Qinghai province. China has also popularized climate-smart agriculture technologies, such as precision spraying technology, and integrated prevention and control of pests and diseases in accordance with local conditions in the project areas.

Such practices have optimized local agricultural production, and made crops climate change-resilient, achieving a "three-win" effect of ensuring food security, adapting to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change has been affecting the development of China's agricultural sector. As the frequency of extreme weather events continues to increase, threatening China's food security, the ability of the agricultural sector to cope with climate change should be further strengthened.

First, the utilization of agricultural resources should be improved, by optimizing the spatial distribution of the agricultural sector according to local conditions, adjusting crop distribution and cropping systems according to climate change trends, and making food production more efficient.

Second, there is a need to strengthen the agricultural disaster mitigation and response system. To that end, the authorities should assess the impact of climate change and extreme weather events on agriculture; improve the disaster monitoring, early warning and response mechanisms; issue disaster-response guidelines and plans in advance; and increase the crop storage capacity in disaster-prone areas.

Third, China should provide more scientific and technological support for the agricultural sector to adapt to climate change, promote innovation and industrialization in the seed industry, breed new high-yielding crop varieties, and strengthen the training of personnel involved in disaster prevention, climate mitigation and climate adaptation in the agricultural sector.

And fourth, food security should be better safeguarded amid the serious impacts of climate change on agriculture, while infrastructure in the agricultural sector should be strengthened and the quality of arable land improved. Further, it is absolutely essential to continuously develop all permanent basic cropland area into high-standard cropland, promote climate-smart agriculture practices and boost agricultural production capacity.

The author is an engineer in the Rural Energy and Environment Agency, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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