Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Climate change

Extreme rainfall reduces rice yields in China

Nature Food volume 4, pages 360–361 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Empirical analyses of historical yields paired with manipulative experiments reveal that extreme rainfall reduces rice yields in China by physically disturbing the panicle and by reducing available soil nitrogen. Such mechanistic understanding aids prediction and mitigation of damages from climate change.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1

MOAimage/Moment/Getty

References

  1. FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP & WHO. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021. Transforming Food Systems for Food Security, Improved Nutrition and Affordable Healthy Diets for All (FAO, 2021); https://doi.org/10.4060/cb4474en

  2. Schlenker, W. & Roberts, M. J. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 15594–15598 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Proctor, J. Nat. Food 2, 166–173 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Proctor, J., Rigden, A., Chan, D. & Huybers, P. Nat. Food 3, 753–763 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Taylor, C. A. & Schlenker, W. Environmental Drivers of Agricultural Productivity Growth: CO2 Fertilization of US Field Crops (No. w29320) (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2021).

  6. Fu, J. et al. Nat. Food https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00753-6 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Li, Y., Guan, K., Schnitkey, G. D., DeLucia, E. & Peng, B. Glob. Change Biol. 25, 2325–2337 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Lesk, C., Coffel, E. & Horton, R. Nat. Clim. Change 10, 819–822 (2020).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Fowler, H. J. et al. Nat. Rev. Earth Environ. 2, 107–122 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Rigden, A. J., Mueller, N. D., Holbrook, N. M., Pillai, N. & Huybers, P. Nat. Food 1, 127–133 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the Environment and Data Science Initiative, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Jonathan Proctor

Authors
  1. Jonathan Proctor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jonathan Proctor.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Proctor, J. Extreme rainfall reduces rice yields in China. Nat Food 4, 360–361 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00757-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00757-2

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing