Agricultural Adaptation to Drought for Different Cropping Systems in Southern China under Climate Change

Abstract

This study investigates agricultural adaptation to drought for different cropping systems in southern China. The study area was divided into three regions: South China (SC), South of the Yangtze River (SYR), and Southwest China (SWC). An index of agricultural adaptation to drought (D) was established. Our findings indicated that the average total crop water demand varied greatly among the regions from 1961 to 2010 in southern China. The maximum value was found in the SC region, followed by the SYR and SWC regions. The effects of droughts on different crops were noticeable. Frequent droughts were recorded in late rice than in early rice in the SC and SYR regions. Droughts in the SWC region mainly affected winter wheat. Moreover, the effects of droughts on crops varied during different growth stages. More frequent and serious droughts occurred during the crop critical flowering stage. Particularly, the frequency of moderate and severe droughts for late rice in the SYR region was 62% during the critical flowering stage. For the SC and SYR regions, the D values of early rice (0.29 and 0.29) were lower than that of late rice (0.31 and 0.33), respectively. For the SWC region, the D values of winter wheat and rice were both low, with averages of 0.16 and 0.29, respectively. Our study provides interesting insights for improving the drought defense abilities for different cropping systems by changing crop planting proportion on a regional scale in China.

Multidimensional identification of single and regional meteorological drought considering flash‐season synthesis employed daily standardized effective precipitation and drought index in Guangxi, China

“…Guangxi is located in the south of China and belongs to the subtropical humid monsoon climate zone, where rocky hills are widely distributed, and karsts are developed, leading to the coexistence and alternation of drought and flood disasters; among them, flash droughts and seasonal droughts are frequent and coexist (Wang and Yuan, 2021). In addition, Guangxi is a large agricultural province, crops are mostly planted on sloping land and mainly rain‐fed, and crop growth in the region is extremely sensitive to the response of meteorological drought (Zhao et al ., 2019; Zhang et al ., 2020a). In recent years, international research on drought events, on the one hand, is gradually changing from the traditional monthly and above time scales and single‐factor feature statistics to more refined time scales and comprehensive measures of multiple factors (Wang et al ., 2021).…”

DRAINMOD simulation of paddy field drainage strategies and adaptation to future climate change in lower reaches of the Yangtze river basin*

“…These changes may have adverse impacts on future water distribution patterns in the area, and thus agricultural production (Georgakakos et al ., 2014; Sterle et al ., 2020). Several studies have reported a close relationship between climate changes and increased losses in rice and wheat yields due to higher temperatures and unfavourable rainfall patterns (Mohammed and Tarpley, 2009; Ran et al ., 2018; Qu et al ., 2019; Yang et al ., 2019; Zhao et al ., 2019).…”

Multi-Stakeholder Efforts to Adapt to Climate Change in China’s Agricultural Sector

“…The scientific community is also focused on climate change adaptation issues because of the increased understanding that inertia in the climate system will necessitate adaptation in the long term [2]. Crops in China will likely be strongly affected by meteorological disasters unless states and communities can quickly adapt their agricultural practices [3,4].…”