New research finds damage to rice crops has accelerated in recent decades due to rainstorms that increasingly submerge young plants for a week or more.
New research finds damage to rice crops has accelerated in recent decades due to rainstorms that increasingly submerge young plants for a week or more. Adoption of flood-resistant rice varieties in vulnerable regions could help avert future losses.
Severe flooding has slashed global rice yields in recent decades, threatening food security for billions of people who depend on the grain. The losses amounted to approximately 4.3%, or 18 million tons of rice per year, between 1980 and 2015, according to research from Stanford University published November 14 in Science Advances.
Damage has accelerated since 2000 due to more frequent extreme floods across major rice-growing regions, a trend likely to be exacerbated by climate change, the researchers found.
Read More: Stanford University
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