Extreme weather, agricultural carbon emissions, adaptation, and mitigation strategies.
Farmer Lu Rongyan trialled chayote shoots from local heirloom varieties in Guzhai Yao Ethnic Township, Mashan, lifting income for elderly and women who stayed; cultivation hit 2,000 mu in five years. Last year’s alternating floods and droughts cut seed-fruit supply, putting seed-saving and diversified cropping on the agenda.
Maize once needed just one round of pesticide; now each crop demands six. The Fall armyworm has pushed farmers onto a “pesticide treadmill”, biological control is too slow, and whether GM maize can break the deadlock remains uncertain.
Bunong woman Langheng has guarded a 2,282-hectare community forest in Cambodia for years, yet chainsaws devour the woodland in secret after dark. REDD+ is designed to convert forest carbon into community conservation funding, but “additionality” hurdles and profiteers bypassing consent make it ever harder for indigenous peoples to defend their land.
Three farming friends growing vegetables in Shunyi, Beijing, and Chuxiong, Yunnan have weathered downpours battering trees and droughts cracking reservoirs — their experiences trace the link between rising vegetable prices and climate change.
Drawing on cracked dry land in Chongqing and flood-hit Hebei villages, Liu Juan, Associate Professor at China Agricultural University, argues that rural climate adaptation is trapped by ageing labour, unprofitable farming and other fundamental problems. The answer is comprehensive social mechanisms, not treating climate as a siloed issue.
Foodthink, supported by Oxfam Hong Kong’s Beijing Office, has launched a survey soliciting practical experience and needs in climate adaptation from rural social organisations. The survey closes on 31 December 2024.
South floods, north droughts, back-to-back typhoons – smallholder farmers bear the brunt. From stress-tolerant varieties to crop rotation and intercropping, agroecology digging deep alongside farmers is agriculture’s fundamental path through the climate crisis.
Four eco-farms—Lexiangu, Yuefengdao, Wuyuetian and Fukang Shengliang—span the region from Shanghai to Jiaxing; their losses ranged from minor damage to nearly a whole year’s work down the drain, with scale, infrastructure and farming methods the decisive variables.
Weekly supply at Xiaoliushu Farm, Shunyi, has dropped from 200 boxes to 40; at Kongkonggu Farm, Pinggu, aubergines and tomatoes were nearly all lost. Autumn sowing is delayed by almost a month, and national wholesale prices are up 40%.
At Yinlin Village, Taiping Town, Conghua, Guangzhou, Sister Hu’s 400-plus lychee trees yielded over 8,000 jin last year — this year, not even 100. At Pengcheng Ecological Farm, 200-plus trees produced just a dozen or so lychees. Prices up several times over still cannot recoup the costs.
