Drier Weather Ahead: How Can Rice Cultivation Adapt?
More than a year ago, I first encountered the concept of “climate-friendly rice farming” at a discussion on community-based agricultural practices addressing climate change. Last month, I travelled with fellow farmers from Panzhihua in Sichuan, Wuhu in Anhui, and Fuyuan in Heilongjiang to project sites in Kunming, Pu’er and Honghe. Run by the Yunnan Sili Ecological Alternatives Technology Centre (henceforth “Sili”), these sites offered a chance to see how the technique takes root across varied rural landscapes.
On the surface, it is a rice-cultivation technique based on aerobic tillage. By reducing both the duration and extent of soil flooding, it aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Yet, “greenhouse gas reduction” was far from the main focus of our conversations. Under this water-conserving model, what really occupied our discussions was how well the rice tillers would develop, what the yields might look like, and just how deep wells would need to be drilled in villages already grappling with drought. For these farmers, the pressing question was less about “climate change” and more about whether this method could deliver a better harvest while using less water.
Uncle Li hails from Lianhe Village in Hongge Town, Yanbian County, Panzhihua. Lately, his community has begun to appreciate the value of double-cropping rice for both food security and agricultural self-reliance. Yet, decades of intensive vegetable cultivation have heavily drained local groundwater. Combined with droughts driven by climate change, water supplies are growing increasingly tight. Meanwhile, Mr Wang in Wuhu switched to water-saving, drought-resistant rice varieties several years ago. Over the past couple of years, the early-year droughts in his hometown of Xihe have grown more severe, while summer heatwaves have reached new extremes.
Fuyuan lies at the easternmost tip of China, in the triangular delta where the Heilongjiang and Wusuli rivers converge. While water scarcity is not an acute concern here, Mr Zhu, a local farmer, recognised through government subsidies that policy is actively steering how water is used. In the area, rice growers who irrigate using surface water receive a subsidy that is 60 yuan per mu higher than the rate for those relying on groundwater.
Travelling south from Kunming, we witnessed how varying climates and soil conditions across different counties shaped the local implementation of “climate-friendly rice farming,” giving each iteration a distinct character. “It is about adaptation-based mitigation for climate change,” explained Zuo Zhi, Sili’s Executive Director, summarising their outreach strategy.
What exactly is climate-friendly rice farming? With production costs climbing and market prices offering little room for increase, how do you persuade farmers who are already sceptical to adopt this new cultivation method? And what does “adaptation” truly look like on the ground? Throughout our journey, Sili’s work pointed the way to answering these very questions.
I. “Climate-friendly” Rice Cultivation
In late August, the heading rice plants grew from the raised beds, wafting fragrant bursts through the air. Each bed was covered with clear plastic mulch, while scattered pools of water lay in the furrows. The varieties used are conventional japonica rice: Shengnong No. 4, No. 7, and Yunjing No. 37, bred by the Yunnan Provincial Shengnong Rice Research Institute and the Grain Crops Research Institute of the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
“Most of our irrigation water remains in the furrows; the bed surfaces are largely without water most of the time.” Zhao Hao, project lead for Sili’s climate-friendly rice farming programme, stood beside the promotional board introducing this water-saving method of raised beds and furrows, also known as moist cultivation via raised-bed and furrow irrigation.
In agricultural practice, forming raised beds involves piling soil into elongated mounds above ground level to create planting beds of a specific height and width, known locally as bed surfaces. Furrowing refers to digging trenches below ground level between these beds to facilitate drainage. This dry-farming raised-bed approach is similar to the “double-ridge and triple-furrow” technique I once observed in Lanzhou’s dry vegetable-growing regions. Both methods involve planting crops on the ridges and covering them with plastic mulch. In arid and semi-arid vegetable-growing areas, this raised-bed and furrow system helps conserve water. The furrows capture rainfall or irrigation water, while the mulch on the beds helps reduce soil moisture evaporation and suppresses weed growth.
In the context of climate change, the raised-bed and furrow method is regarded as a climate-friendly rice cultivation approach, as it eliminates the need for continuous flooding and thereby reduces the potential for methane emissions from paddies.
In traditional flooded rice fields, continuous submersion deprives the soil of oxygen, creating an anaerobic environment. Under these conditions, soil microorganisms constantly break down submerged organic matter—such as crop straw and root residues—progressively releasing small molecules. These are ultimately converted into methane by methanogenic bacteria and released into the atmosphere.
Ridge-and-furrow farming helps reduce methane emissions from rice paddies while also improving field management efficiency and streamlining physical labour.
A villager I spoke to in Wagong Community explained that before this 100-mu demonstration plot switched to the ridge-and-furrow method, it required 15 workers to handle field management, including spraying pesticides and applying fertiliser. This year, the team has been reduced to six. With reduced water levels, workers can walk straight into the fields, making tasks noticeably easier than managing traditional flooded paddies.
At another trial base in Wagong Community, Sili utilises direct dry-seeding for dryland rice to grow traditional heritage rice varieties from across the country. This approach eliminates the need for manual seedling raising and transplanting. Instead, seeds are sown directly onto ridges covered with plastic sheeting or other mulch materials, which helps suppress weeds and conserve soil moisture.
This dry-cultivation method requires no flooding, fitting neatly into the profile of climate-friendly rice farming. However, yields are lower: dryland rice typically produces around 300 kilograms per mu, roughly 200 kilograms less per mu than its flooded counterpart.
Yet direct seeding demands less labour than transplanting, and upland rice is inherently more drought-resilient, making it a practical fit for Yunnan’s worsening aridity.
According to the 2024 Yunnan Provincial Climate Bulletin, the region has seen below-average rainfall for six consecutive years. Drought conditions of varying intensity are particularly acute during the winter and spring seasons. Over the past five years, drought-affected areas have spread from the core zones in central Yunnan, as well as those to the east and south, extending into the northwestern, western, and southern reaches of the province.
Two months ago, while visiting Yongning Town and Youmi Village in Lijiang, I encountered smallholder farmers who had started small-scale trials of upland direct seeding. The persistent dryness was the primary reason they were willing to experiment with the method.
II. Who to partner with for promotion and adoption?
Smallholders generally lack the incentive to grow staple crops such as rice. Rice commands a significantly lower market price than cash crops like fruits and vegetables, while farmers simultaneously face rising costs for inputs and labour. Faced with this reality, when severe drought strikes during the transplanting season, the most straightforward and practical option is to abandon rice altogether. They can then allocate their limited land and labour to more profitable crops, or head to the cities for seasonal work.
“Without subsidies, it is very difficult to make a profit from growing rice. There is simply no reason to expect farmers to shoulder such a significant social responsibility in the face of climate change,” says Zuo Zhi. Recognising this reality, Foodthink has chosen to collaborate with various grassroots organisations, with agricultural technology stations serving as one of their key partners.
These bodies typically have a stronger incentive and a clearer mandate to promote rice cultivation.
As frontline staff within the agricultural administration, these stations are tasked with ensuring grain output while also delivering technical training and support. Crucially, since 2022, the Yunnan Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has been promoting dryland cultivation techniques for hybrid rice across the province to combat increasingly severe spring droughts. These shared priorities form the basis of Foodthink’s collaboration with county and village-level agricultural technology stations.
“Yunnan has a distinct wet and dry season cycle, and rainfall during the wet season has been declining over the past few years. By March and April, when it is time to transplant, we are still in the dry season with virtually no rain. Under those conditions, the seedlings simply cannot be established.” An employee at the agricultural technology station in Shiping County, Honghe Prefecture, explained to fellow farmers from across the region. The county is among the driest in Yunnan and one of the first to pioneer water-saving rice cultivation methods.
Behind the staff member lies a contiguous block of trial fields in Doudiwan Village, Yilong Town. Last year, these plots—cultivated using a raised-bed and furrow-irrigation moist system—yielded just over 700 kilograms per mu. Across the Yilong Lake basin, roughly 3,400 mu of rice paddies are now farmed using this method, with Foodthink supplying the technical expertise.
A staff member at the town’s agricultural technology station told us that, initially, meeting grain production targets required considerable effort to persuade villagers to set aside their land for rice cultivation.
“Land rent here in Shiping stands at 4,000 yuan per mu,” Zhao Hao added. “If you planted vegetables instead, the revenue per mu could reach between 10,000 and 20,000 yuan. Some vegetable varieties allow for four or five successive crops in a year, and are shipped to developed markets in Beijing, South-East Asia and beyond, pushing annual yields per mu even higher.”
To encourage villagers to turn over their land for rice, the agricultural station not only supplies essential inputs such as seeds and organic fertiliser free of charge, but also provides coordinated aerial pest control and mechanised harvesting services for the paddies. On top of that, they offer an ecological compensation payment to local rice farmers of 1,500 yuan per mu.
“Back where I’m from, a subsidy of a few dozen or a hundred yuan would be considered a fortune!” Uncle Li exclaimed on hearing the figure. In Panzhihua, he had scarcely ever encountered subsidies of such magnitude.
Judged against local returns per mu, the amount is hardly substantial. But as a direct subsidy for rice production, it represents a considerable sum. The funding comes from an ecological compensation scheme established by Shiping County to protect the Yilong Lake watershed. Yilong Lake is one of Yunnan’s nine major plateau lakes, and as a lakeside community, Doudiwan carries the added responsibility of safeguarding this highland lake ecosystem.
Cultivating rice serves the agricultural station’s aim of securing grain supplies while simultaneously aiding watershed conservation for Yilong Lake.
Fertilisers left unabsorbed during potato production accumulate heavily in the soil. Were it not for the rice fields to take them up, rainfall would wash large quantities into the lake, raising the risk of eutrophication in Yilong Lake’s waters. Rotating rice into the cycle not only supports food security but also contributes to the ecological conservation of Yilong Lake.
III. Adaptation-Based Action
Not every region is situated along the shores of a plateau lake. In areas without ecological conservation mandates, agricultural extension stations are primarily focused on fulfilling grain production targets. “When promoting these practices, we concentrate on finding points of alignment with existing policies,” says Zuo Zhi.
Staff at agricultural extension stations across different regions interpret and implement policies from varying angles. Some locales are chiefly concerned with tackling the practical challenges of rice cultivation, while others place greater emphasis on conservation tillage. In every area, the team must identify points of consensus that fit the local context, tailoring their approach to promote technologies in a way that respects ground-level realities.
On a technical level, Sili is also exploring new models to better balance the interests of producers. In their demonstration area within the Wagong Community in Kunming, we observed upland rice intercropped with citrus trees. Zhao Hao added that this design was primarily motivated by the relatively low profitability of upland rice; the fruit trees offer an opportunity to supplement farmers’ income. Furthermore, interplanting fruit trees in upland rice fields avoids any issues related to changing land use classifications.
Beyond collaborating with agricultural technology stations, Sili is also seeking partnerships with social organisations that are widely active across Yunnan. These organisations have typically amassed considerable experience working in Yunnan’s rural communities and inevitably engage with the agricultural practices of smallholder farmers. Through these collaborations, Sili connects with individual smallholders scattered across Yunnan’s mountainous regions who remain keen to cultivate rice.
We witnessed this kind of partnership in action at Qielongzhongzhai Village. The collaboration between local villager Che Zhixiong and Sili was primarily facilitated by the Village Eye, a social organisation that has worked in the village for some time. The Village Eye encourages residents to document their daily lives and agricultural work through photography and video.
Che Zhixiong is one of the villagers working with the Village Eye in Qielongzhongzhai Village. After returning to his hometown, he continues to tend his family’s terraced fields. For Che, terraced farming and rice cultivation are an integral part of Hani culture.
In recent years, however, local rice cultivation has faced the dual challenges of labour outflow and water scarcity. Water management is an issue that can be optimised through technology, prompting the Village Eye to reach out to Sili for collaboration.
This marks their first year of collaboration, during which Sili has developed several tailored approaches for Che Zhixiong’s terraced fields.
Taking the local terrain into account, where water is scarce on the upper slopes and abundant at the base, they apply direct seeding of upland rice on the higher terraces, implement moist cultivation using ridge and furrow irrigation at mid-levels, and retain the traditional flooded cultivation at the lowest plots. In each system, local traditional varieties and hybrid strains are grown concurrently to run comparative trials.
Standing beside rice plants taller than a person, Zhao Hao remarked to fellow farmers and visitors along the terrace edge, “Yuan Longping’s dream of ‘enjoying the cool shade beneath the rice crops’ has already come to fruition here.”
This small patch of towering rice is a local traditional variety known as ‘Hongniaoniaoneng’, which can reach up to two metres in height. “We’ve found that traditional varieties possess remarkable drought resilience. They relied entirely on natural rainfall throughout the growing season; we didn’t irrigate them with a single drop of water,” he explained.
Among the traditional varieties trialled in Qielongzhong Village, Hongniaoniaoneng also yielded the best results. Based on yield sampling, Qin Yuchao, a technician from Sili, estimated that the variety holds strong potential for yield increases under the ridge-and-furrow cultivation system. The plot of Hongniaoniaoneng we visited—direct-seeded into dry fields—had already demonstrated this yield advantage compared with traditional flooded paddy cultivation.
In Qielongzhong Village, other rice varieties also showed varying degrees of yield improvement after being cultivated using dry or moist-soil methods.
On the morning we departed from Qielongzhong Village, Che Zhixiong took us to a cliff near a neighbouring settlement. Below, sweeping terraces stretched out, drawing repeated exclamations of “Wow! Wow!” from our farming companions. From a visitor’s perspective, it would be a true pity if such a distinctive landscape and agricultural heritage were not preserved.
But without proper maintenance, compounded by drought, the character of the terraced landscape can be degraded.
Standing high up on the terraces, Zuo Zhi pointed into the distance. “Look closely, and you’ll notice that many of the terraces have been converted to maize.” He went on to explain that without sustained water retention, and lacking the seasonal reinforcement of the bunds by local farmers, heavy rainfall could easily wash the fields out, leading to terrace collapse.
From a purely technical standpoint, the ridge-and-furrow irrigation method can, to some extent, reconcile the tension between farmers’ water shortages and the upkeep of the terraces. Zuo Zhi views this as another instance of “climate-friendly rice cultivation” adapting to local needs: it accounts for shifting environmental conditions while also aligning, to a degree, with the region’s cultural heritage.
This year, Silai added seven or eight new project sites across Yunnan, similar to those in Zhongzhai, Qielong, and Yilong Town.
Yet Qin Yuchao reiterated that yields from direct dry-seeding can also be compromised in certain areas by pests, weeds, and suboptimal management. Whether direct seeding or ridge-and-furrow moist cultivation is better for a given variety is not set in stone. “It all comes down to adapting to local conditions,” he stressed.
IV. Beneath the climate framing, rice cultivation remains a practical farming technique
For growers, whether a method takes hold hinges on practical utility: will it boost yields, cut water use, or simply render the crop more resilient? While born out of the macro narrative of mitigating greenhouse gas-driven climate change, Sili has gradually rooted its promotion in Yunnan’s local context. Yet the initiative is still in its infancy. How it can be steadily refined, and whether it will prove viable across wider regions, remains to be seen.
Though widespread drying is Yunnan’s prevailing trend, Kunming experienced an exceptionally wet rainy season this year. In the upland rice trial plots in Wagong Community, Wuhua District, the newly installed sprinkler systems lay unused. “Last year’s rains were so scarce we devised every workaround we could, only for the skies to open this year,” Qin Yuchao remarked wryly. More volatile climatic shifts are casting greater uncertainty over their adaptive experiments.
Editor: Pei Dan