Global warming to decimate China’s harvests

BEIJING (AFP) – Global warming is set to cut China’s annual grain harvest by up to 10 percent by 2030, placing extra burden on its shrinking farmland, state press reported Thursday.

Zheng Guoguang, head of the State Meteorological Administration, said the impact of global warming means that China will likely need an extra 10 million hectares (247 million acres) of farmland by 2030.


The year 2030 is a key date because that is when the nation’s population is expected to peak at 1.5 billion people, up from just over 1.3 billion today, requiring an extra 100 million tons of food to feed them.

“Global warming may cause the grain harvest to fall by five to 10 percent, that is by 30-50 million tons, by 2030,” the China Daily quoted Zheng as saying.

“Warmer weather will shorten the growth period of some grains and their seeds won’t have enough time to ripen.”

AFP