ニューヨーク・タイムズのインスタグラム(nytimes) - 5月29日 03時29分

As climate change threatens the global rice supply, farmers from the Mississippi to the Mekong are reimagining how it is grown.

Rice is a staple grain for an estimated three billion people worldwide, and production is projected to shrink this year, largely because of extreme weather. Sometimes there’s not enough rain when seedlings need water. Sometimes there’s too much. As the sea intrudes, salt ruins the crop. As nights get warmer, yields go down.

These hazards are forcing the world to find new ways to grow rice, one of its most important crops. Farmers are shifting their planting calendars. Plant breeders are working on seeds to withstand high temperatures or salty soils. Hardy heirloom varieties are being resurrected.

The climate crisis is particularly distressing for small farmers with little land, which is the case for hundreds of millions of farmers in Asia.

Today, intensive production has created new problems worldwide. It has depleted aquifers, driven up fertilizer use, reduced the diversity of rice breeds that are planted, and polluted the air with the smoke of burning rice stubble. Rice provides daily calories for some of the world’s poorest people, and elevated carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere deplete nutrients from each grain. Rice also accounts for an estimated 8% of global methane emissions.

Tap the link in our bio to see how rice farmers are learning how to adapt to the challenge of climate change.

Photos and videos by @thanh.nguyent and @rorydoylephoto

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