ABSTRACT
Just how climate change will impact agriculture and animal husbandry is a primary concern for the Chinese government. Sustaining the careful balance necessary to feed a growing population in the face of climatic and other shocks will require careful long-term planning and improvement in China’s capacity to adapt to climate change in agriculture. Key to this is investigating the vulnerability of regional agricultural to climate change and developing measures and policies to reduce those vulnerabilities while exploring new opportunities, such as ecological restoration and organic farming opportunities (described below) that build livelihoods and ecological resilience. Yang Fei is chairman of the Zhongwei Modern Desert Agricultural Company, composed of more than 650 hectares of cropland and greenhouses protected by a ring of date and poplar trees and ‘grass grid’ sand abatement barriers. In the mixed-use farm, pollution-free groundwater filtered by the desert sands is piped through a trickle-irrigation network to sustain a vast array of organic fruit and vegetables, from aubergines [eggplants] to muskmelons and tomatoes. Alfalfa cultivated in the grass barriers is used to feed cattle, which in turn produce dung to fertilise the date trees. Yang grows what the market demands and reaps a premium for delivering certified-organic produce. As a businessman, Yang’s daily focus is on the financial bottom line of his operation. As a resident, however, he is also grateful for the difference in the landscape and lives made by the revegetation push. ‘[Farming the desert] brings more job opportunities to the local community. Each greenhouse creates two jobs. . . . It brings them good financial benefits,’ he says. ‘It also changes the desert and the environment. In recent years, we’ve seen fewer sandstorms in Zhongwei after we planted the forest. Rainwater has become clear and the ecosystem has recovered.’ This chapter provides an overview of China’s efforts to date in developing long-term measures to adapt to the effects of climate change in agriculture. The adaptation choices China makes will have broad-scale impacts not only on the viability of the sector and on the livelihoods and business ventures of farmers like Yang Fei, but also far beyond China’s borders in terms of its influence on regional and global agricultural markets and international water negotiations (e.g. water management on the Lancang/Mekong River). The chapter first examines the impacts of climate variability and change on agriculture and food security in China, including a case study that examines some of China’s recent work in developing biophysical impact assessments for three crops critical to China’s food supply – maize, rice and wheat – using climate projections developed under the Adapting to Climate Change in China I (ACCC I) programme.1 It then goes on to outline some of the measures that the government has been taking to support adaptation in the agriculture sector.
