Extreme weather calls for agricultural risk control

Vegetable prices have been rising fast in China since July, up 36.2 percent from the year before. High temperatures are to blame for the vegetable price hikes.

Data show that during the period from July 21 to Aug 10, the average rainfall in northern China was more than during the same period in other years. High humidity, coinciding with high temperatures, seriously curtailed vegetable growth, leading to a sharp rise in prices.

The country must thus pay attention to frequent extreme climate events.

There are also some other problems in management mechanism to tackle climate risks to agriculture, weak ability to fend off meteorological disasters and farmers' lack of means to deal with climate risk to agriculture. Therefore, the country needs to build a relevant disaster prevention and control system as soon as possible, strengthen the construction of agricultural infrastructure, and develop climate-resilient agriculture, to improve the ability of its agricultural sector to resist climate change risks.

It also needs to establish a backbone network for the circulation of agricultural products, and speed up the construction of cold chain logistics facilities, to ensure the smooth flow of agricultural products and their stable supply across the country.

21ST CENTURY BUSINESS HERALD