Long Read: Warming Climate Threatens Chinese Farmers’ Livelihoods

Climate change increasingly bringing extreme weather and pests to major agricultural provinces in China’s northern climes

Shang Quanyu, director of the rice research division at the Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ Heihe branch, tells visitors about the new varieties of rice being planted in experimental fields in a village in Heihe, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province. Photo: Wang Shuo/Caixin

After the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations ended in Huma, a county at the northern reaches of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, farmer Xu Xiujian began harvesting his soybean crop. He had planted earlier than usual this year, in line with the spring rains, which had come early in mid-April.

Xu’s case, while alone seemingly unremarkable, reflects a much larger shift happening in China’s climate and the impact it is having on the country’s agricultural industry.

As climate change impacts global weather patterns, China is warming, meaning farmers in the country’s northern climes have the potential to grow a wider variety of crops as well as higher yielding strains that require a longer growing season.