China’s agriculture ministry is calling for more urgent research into new crop varieties that can tolerate alkaline soil and shorter growing seasons, as it seeks to ensure food security amid a changing climate.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said it has issued a notice urging faster research and demonstration of new varieties including early maturing winter rapeseed and regenerative rice.
China is facing increasingly extreme and unpredictable weather, from devastating floods to this summer’s soaring temperatures that shrunk major rivers and lakes and are threatening autumn harvests.
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The government has previously said that farmers will need to adapt by switching to higher-yield and stress-resistant crops in order to handle the growing risks. It is currently trying to save the rice crop in parts of eastern Anhui and Jiangsu provinces from drought.
The ministry said provincial authorities should speed up research into regenerative rice varieties, and breed saline-tolerant and alkali-tolerant grains.
