Aggressive plant fungus threatens wheat production

Seed Daily via SPX: The spread of exotic and aggressive strains of a plant fungus is presenting a serious threat to wheat production in the UK, according to research published in Genome Biology. The research uses a new surveillance technique that could be applied internationally to respond to the spread of a wide variety of plant diseases.

Wheat is a critical staple and provides 20% of the calories and over 25% of the protein consumed by humans. 'Yellow rust' caused by the fungus Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (PST) is one of the plant's major diseases and is widespread across the major wheat-producing areas of the world.

Infections lead to significant reductions in both grain quality and yield, with some rare events leading to the loss of an entire crop. New fungus strains have recently emerged that adapt to warmer temperatures, are more aggressive and have overcome many of the major defensive genes in wheat.

Lead author Diane Saunders of the John Innes Centre and The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC), UK, said: "Increased virulence, globalization, and climate change, are all increasing the scale and frequency of emerging plant diseases, and threatening global food security....

Trial plots of winter wheat that are being evaluated for their response to fungicide applications for controlling wheat diseases such as brown rust, yellow rust, eyespot and septoria. Shot by , Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Study finds climate change may dramatically reduce wheat production

A press release from Kansas State University: A recent study involving Kansas State University researchers finds that in the coming decades at least one-quarter of the world's wheat traded will be lost to extreme weather from climate change if no adaptive measures are taken.

Vara Prasad, professor of crop ecophysiology and director of the USAID Feed the Future Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab at Kansas State University, is part of a collaborative team that found wheat yields are projected to decrease by 6 percent for each degree Celsius the temperature rises if no measures to adapt to extreme weather fluctuations are taken.

Based on the 2012-2013 wheat harvest of 701 million tons worldwide, the resulting temperature increase would result in 42 million tons less produced wheat per degree of temperature increase. To put this in perspective, the amount is equal to a quarter of the global wheat trade, which reached 147 million tons in 2013. Changes in genetics and crop management can minimize some of these losses.

"It's pretty severe," Prasad said. "The projected effect of climate change on wheat is more than what has been forecast. That's challenging because the world will have to at least double our food supply in the next 30 years if we're going to feed 9.6 billion people."

Prasad is a co-author on the study, "Rising temperatures reduce global wheat production," published in a recent issue of the scientific journal Nature Climate Change.

..."Extreme temperature doesn't only mean heat; it also means cold," Prasad said. "Simply looking at the average temperature doesn't really show us anything because it's the extremities that are more detrimental to crops. Plants can handle gradual changes because they have time to adapt, but an extreme heat wave or cold snap can kill a plant because that adjustment period is often nonexistent."....

Wheat, shot by Scott Bontz (Dehaan), Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Rising temperatures hinder Indian wheat production

A press release from the University of Southampton: Geographers at the University of Southampton have found a link between increasing average temperatures in India and a reduction in wheat production. Researchers Dr John Duncan, Dr Jadu Dash and Professor Pete Atkinson have shown that recent warmer temperatures in the country’s major wheat belt are having a negative effect on crop yield. More specifically, they found a rise in nighttime temperatures is having the most impact.

Dr Jadu Dash comments: “Our findings highlight the vulnerability of India’s wheat production system to temperature rise, which is predicted to continue in the coming decades as a consequence of climate change. We are sounding an early warning to the problem, which could have serious implications in the future and so needs further investigation.”

The researchers used satellite images taken at weekly intervals from 2002 to 2007 of the wheat growing seasons to measure ‘vegetation greenness’ of the crop – acting as an indicator of crop yield. The satellite imagery, of the north west Indo-Gangetic plains, was taken at a resolution of 500m squared – high enough to capture variations in local agricultural practices. The data was then compared with climate and temperature information for the area to examine the effect on growth and development of the crop. The study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, found that:

• warmer temperature events have reduced crop yield
• in particular, warmer temperatures during the reproductive and grain-filling (ripening) periods had a significant negative impact on productivity
• warmer minimum daily temperatures (nighttime temperatures) had the most significant impact on yield

In some areas of the Indian wheat belt, growers have been bringing forward their growing season in order to align the most sensitive point of the crop growth cycle with a cooler period. However, the researchers have also shown that in the long-term this will not be an effective way of combating the problem, because of the high level of average temperature rise predicted for the future.

Dr Dash comments: “Our study shows that, over the longer period, farmers are going to have to think seriously about changing their wheat to more heat tolerant varieties in order to prevent temperature-induced yield losses....

A wheat field in Phagwara, Punjab, India, shot by Sixtybolts, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Straw albedo mitigates extreme heat

Peter Ruegg in a press release from ETH Zurich: Fields that are not tilled after crop harvesting reflect a greater amount of solar radiation than tilled fields. This phenomenon can reduce temperatures in heat waves by as much as 2 °C, as researchers from ETH have demonstrated in a recent study.

Wheat fields are often tilled immediately after the crop is harvested, removing the light-coloured stubble and crop residues from the soil surface and bringing dark bare earth to the top. Post-harvest tilling is a widely practised and common management technique in Europe. However, ploughed fields can have a negative effect on the local climate during a heat wave. This effect was addressed in a recent study conducted by researchers at ETH Zurich led by Edouard Davin, senior lecturer at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, and Sonia Seneviratne, professor of land-climate dynamics, which has now been published in the scientific journal PNAS.

Unploughed stubble is lighter in colour and reflects more solar radiation than tilled surfaces. Measurements taken show that approximately 30% of sunlight is reflected back due to the albedo effect – the albedo is a measure of the reflectance capacity of reflective surfaces. Ploughed fields reflect only 20% of incoming solar radiation. Model simulations have shown that this difference results in a 50% higher level of reflection in unploughed fields and that this in turn has a significant effect in extreme heat. In the event of a heat wave, such as the one in Europe in 2003, unploughed farm fields could reduce the local temperature by as much as 2 °C.

The hotter it becomes, the greater the albedo effect and the resulting temperature reduction. "Cropland albedo management has more effect during heat waves because there is almost no clouds during these events and more radiation can be reflected back into space", says first author Edouard Davin. However, this effect is only short term and local — perhaps at the most regional, but never trans-regional.

...The scientists also report that the cooling effect of an unploughed field cannot be attributed solely to changes in albedo values. Crop residue acts as an insulating layer that holds back moisture from deeper soil strata and releases it only slowly — this long process of evaporation also helps reduce the air temperature during a heat wave. In a ploughed field, on the other hand, moisture evaporates more rapidly and almost completely in extreme heat. Thus, there is an additional cooling effect of no-till farming through slow evaporation....

Harvested wheat field with round straw bales. Shot by Arne Hückelheim, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

US Plains young wheat crop at risk from arctic blast

Reuters: Bitter cold conditions expected to move through the U.S. Plains wheat belt next week will put the young crop at risk of winterkill if the region does not see snow before then, an agricultural meteorologist said on Friday.

World Weather Inc meteorologist Drew Lerner said a Canadian cold front is heading to the Plains wheat country, Kansas to Colorado, mid- to late next week. Temperatures could dip to below zero Fahrenheit (-18 C) by next Friday.

But the chances of the region getting snow before then are good, Lerner said. The snow provides a layer of insulation to the crop, protecting it from damage. The U.S. weather model is forecasting heavy snows for the Plains and western Midwest next week.

...Over the next few days, the Plains winter wheat belt will warm up into the range of 50 to 60s degrees F, bringing some of the crop out of dormancy in the southern portion of the belt, he said. The crop will benefit from the moisture and the transition to colder temperatures late next week should be gradual, easing crop stress brought on by the frigid temperatures....

Claude Monet's 1891 painting of stacks of wheat in the snow at sunset

Egypt in turmoil faces looming food crisis

Terra Daily via UPI: Egypt faces severe food shortages in the months ahead and its military rulers are pinning their hopes on a bumper wheat crop to see the country through.

There are fears that even if the home-grown harvest is up to expectations and produces the 9.5 million metric tons officials predict, that won't be enough to feed the country's 84 million people.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates the upcoming crop will total 8.7 million tones, 10 percent lower than the Egyptians forecast, and warned several "knowledgeable interlocutors" expect the crop to produce only 6 million to 7 million metric tons.

Bassem Ouda, the minister of supplies in the government of President Mohamed Morsi -- who was ousted by the army July 3 -- admitted last week the state has less than two months' supply of imported wheat in stock, or about 500,000 metric tons.

The government has 3 million metric tons of Egyptian wheat from the spring harvest, which could last until October at current rates of consumption. But because of growing financial problems and difficulties accessing foreign currency as the political crisis deepens, Egypt's access to foreign wheat is dwindling.

That means bread shortages, and with about 40 percent of the population living below the poverty line -- subsisting on heavily subsidized bread that sells at the equivalent of 1 U.S. cent a loaf -- that could trigger widespread social unrest....

Pompeii’s Pillar in Alexandria, Egypt, built in 297 CE, in honor of Emperor Diocletian. He brought wheat to the country during a time of famine. The pillar is set on a stone base 25 feet square and 15 feet high. Alexandria, Egypt. Shot by Dennis Jarvis, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

South Korea says finds no GMO in initial tests of U.S. wheat

Reuters: South Korea has not detected genetically modified wheat in initial tests of imports of the grain and flour from Oregon, after news last week that a rogue strain of the crop had been discovered in the U.S. state spooked buyers globally.

Korean millers on Friday suspended imports of U.S. wheat until the final results of government tests on shipments from around the United States, now expected on Wednesday.

The wheat found in a northeast Oregon field in late April was developed by biotech giant Monsanto Co more than a decade ago but never put into commercial production.

The discovery of the long-forgotten strain prompted Japan to shun wheat from the Pacific Northwest at its weekly tender on Thursday, while some Asian countries ramped up inspections and the European Union said it would step up testing.

"Although our preliminary test result shows no genetically modified wheat was found, we are aiming to test all samples of wheat and flour imported from the U.S.," said an official at Korea's Ministry of Food and Drugs....

From a 2912 anti-GMO protest, shot by Daniel Goehring, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

US discovery of rogue GMO wheat raises concerns over controls

Carey Gillam and Julie Ingwersen in Reuters: For global consumers now on high alert over a rogue strain of genetically modified wheat found in Oregon, the question is simple: How could this happen? For a cadre of critics of biotech crops, the question is different: How could it not?

The questions arose after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday that it was investigating the mysterious appearance of experimental, unapproved genetically engineered wheat plants on a farm in Oregon. The wheat was developed years ago by Monsanto Co to tolerate its Roundup herbicide, but the world's largest seed company scrapped the project and ended all field trials in 2004.

The incident joins a score of episodes in which biotech crops have eluded efforts to segregate them from conventional varieties. But it marks the first time that a test strain of wheat, which has no genetically modified varieties on the market, has escaped the protocols set up by U.S. regulators to control it.

"These requirements are leaky and there is just no doubt about that. There is a fundamental problem with the system," said Doug Gurian-Sherman, a scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists who served on a biotech advisory subcommittee for the Food and Drug Administration from 2002 to 2005.

The discovery instantly roiled export markets, with Japan canceling a major shipment of wheat, a quick reminder of what is at stake - an $8 billion U.S. wheat export business....

Wheat image by Aalang, Wikimedia Commons,  under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Egypt faces food crisis over wheat shortage

Seed Daily via UPI: The Egyptian government is gambling that this year's domestic wheat crop will produce 9.5 million tons, a prediction widely seen as dangerously over-optimistic as the world's most populous Arab state is wracked by growing political crisis.

Egypt, the world's biggest wheat importer, is facing critical food shortages that are certain to worsen the political turmoil if not checked. The country's foreign currency reserves are seriously depleted after two years of economic upheaval following the downfall of longtime President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

Some estimates say reserves have slumped 63 percent -- from $30 billion to $13.4 billion -- since Mubarak was forced to step down. That means Cairo doesn't have the funds to buy wheat, the main food staple for the country's 84 million people.

Bread is heavily subsidized, selling for less than 1 cent a loaf. If the subsidy is reduced, the social discontent would be potentially disastrous in the current unrest....

A wheat field in the Nile Valley, shot by Wilhelms, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Britain 'running out of wheat' owing to bad weather

BBC: Britain will become a net importer of wheat for the first time in a decade this year because of bad weather, the National Farmers' Union has said.

NFU president Peter Kendall said more than two million tonnes of wheat had been lost because of last year's poor summer. The prolonged cold weather would also impact this autumn's harvest, he said.

But he said the shortage was unlikely to affect the price of bread because of the global nature of the market.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Kendall said the average yield fell from 7.8 tonnes a hectare to 6.7 tonnes last summer...

A field of wheat at Ladywell, shot by Lisa Jarvis, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Slight climate change can reduce drought effect in wheat

Phys.org: Increased carbon dioxide levels caused by climate change may help wheat cope with drought, according to researchers at The University of Western Australia.   In a world-first study, PhD student Eduardo Dias de Oliveira found that when wheat is exposed to more CO2, it is better able to cope with high temperatures and water restrictions.

As long as the temperature does not rise 2ºC more than average, combining the effects of elevated carbon dioxide and high temperature with water restrictions actually improves biomass and grain yield.

Mr Dias de Oliveira's finding could have significant impact on the future of crop production in the Mediterranean-type climatic wheat-growing regions of Australia, where climate change is expected to have a severe impact on annual yields of 20 million tonnes of wheat over the next 50 years.

…"Our studies unravelled the impact of interaction between elevated CO2, high temperature and water stress in wheat. The vital information generated from the project will help towards developing climate ready wheat for the future," Professor Siddique said.  The PhD project is supported by UWA, CSIRO and Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF)….

Hybrid wheat, shot by Dehaan, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Wheat yields are levelling off, even in some developing countries

Nadya Anscombe in Environmental Research Web: Wheat yields have levelled off in many countries around the world, even in regions of greater food insecurity such as India and Bangladesh, say researchers in the US.

Marena Lin and Peter Huybers from Harvard University believe that there are many reasons for this trend, including losses from regional warming, a reduction in some countries in the amount of fertilizer used and some wheat yields possibly being near their yield potential.

"Many studies suggest that global wheat yields are levelling off," Lin told environmentalresearchweb. "But modelling wheat yields is a complex issue and many models do not account for intrinsic interannual variations, their autocorrelation and the differences in the models compared."

..."With the major exception of India, the majority of levelling in wheat yields occurs within developed nations, including the United Kingdom, France and Germany," said Lin. "This levelling coincides with policies in these countries, which appear to have disincentivized yield increases relative to other objectives. It is interesting to note that in these cases, the levelling wheat yield is probably due to management decisions, rather than the reaching of a yield limit."

In India and Bangladesh, however, there seem to be different factors at play. In these two countries, which have greater food insecurity and have been using increasing amounts of fertilizers, wheat yields are also levelling off. "This could be due to the effects of climate change, which may be expected to decrease yield potential," said Lin. "Also, wheat yields in India and Bangladesh are near their estimated yield potential."...

Wheat harvest, Raisen district, Madhya Pradesh, India, shot by Yann, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Climate-driven heat peaks may shrink wheat crops

PhysOrg: More intense heat waves due to global warming could diminish wheat crop yields around the world through premature ageing, according to a study published Sunday in Nature Climate Change. Current projections based on computer models underestimate the extent to which hotter weather in the future will accelerate this process, the researchers warned.

Wheat is harvested in temperate zones on more than 220 million hectares (545 million acres), making it the most widely grown crop on Earth. In some nations, the grain accounts for up to 50 percent of calorie intake and 20 percent of protein nutrition, according to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), near Mexico City.

In 2010, drought and wildfires in wheat-exporting Russia pushed world prices of the grain to two-year highs, underscoring the vulnerability of global supplies to weather- and climate-related disruptions. Greenhouse experiments have shown that unseasonably warm temperatures -- especially at the end of the growing season -- can cause senescence, the scientific term for accelerated ageing.

More intense heat waves due to global warming could diminish wheat crop yields around the world through premature ageing, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change. Excess heat beyond the plant's tolerance zone damages photosynthetic cells. Fluctuations in wheat yields in India have also been attributed by farmers to temperature, most recently a heat wave in 2010 blamed for stunting plant productivity...

A wheat field shot by 3268zauber, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Boosting wheat yields amid a shifting climate

Farmers Weekly Interactive (UK): During the 1970s and 1980s, wheat yields on farm were increasing by about 3% a year, a remarkable achievement brought about by a combination of improved genetics and better management practices. However, since that time yield gain has slowed; it is now running at 0.5% a year, while on-farm yields have plateaued and are even declining in parts of the EU.

The situation must be reversed to ensure wheat growers can meet the twin challenge of coping with climate change and feeding a burgeoning global population, says Richard Summers, leader on Cereals Breeding at RAGT Seeds. Mr Summers was speaking at a recent Crops and Climate Change seminar, organised by the Cambridge Partnership for Plant Sciences and held at the NIAB Innovation Farm centre.

"I believe the UK will remain an area of high yield potential, though it will be touched by global warming. We can produce wheats for the UK that can cope with the sort of temperature rise we are likely to experience over the next 5-10 years by using genes for daylength response, temperature tolerance and vernalisation requirement found in current French and Mediterranean varieties. However, these genes will need to be recombined with others that are important for adaptation to UK latitudes and high yield potential."

While that would be sufficient to maintain the current upward varietal yield trend, it would not meet the 1-1.5% annual increase needed if the world was not to go hungry by 2050.

To make matters worse, he suspected temperature was already affecting UK crop output. "Yields seem to have plateaued on farm in the UK for the past five or six years. I would love to think it's to do with soil structure, rotation or the effects of economics….”

Either Way in the Wheat, north west of Hedon, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Shot by Andy Beecroft, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Ugly wheat rust variants blow around the world

Environment News Service: New and virulent forms of a fungus called stem rust that attacks wheat are spreading quickly across the world, borne by wind beyond the handful of countries in East Africa where they were first identified. But hope emerged today at a global wheat rust symposium in Minneapolis. Scientists said they are close to producing super varieties of wheat that will resist variants of the Ug99 strain of stem rust, while boosting wheat yields by as much as 15 percent.

The original Ug99 was first discovered in 1998 in Uganda. New data to be presented at the symposium this week show that key Ug99 variants have been identified across all of eastern and southern Africa. Scientists say it is only a matter of time before the rust spores travel to India or Pakistan, Australia or the Americas. "We are facing the prospect of a biological firestorm, but it's also clear that the research community has responded to the threat at top speed, and we are getting results in the form of new varieties that are resistant to rust and appealing to farmers," said Ronnie Coffman, who heads the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project at Cornell University, which is coordinating the fight against the disease.

"But the job of science is not over," Coffman said at the symposium. "Declining support for public agricultural research got us into this problem with Ug99. Unless that changes, the problem is likely to arise again in a few years. We are dealing with a constantly-evolving pathogen, and we need to stay at least one step ahead of it at all times."

Coffman and his colleagues warn that significant obstacles must be overcome before the new varieties of wheat can replace susceptible varieties that cover most of an estimated 225 million hectares (556 million acres) of wheat fields across the breadbaskets of South Asia, the Middle East, China, Europe, Australia and North America. "Now it's a question of whether nations are willing to invest the political and economic capital necessary for agricultural research to secure the world's wheat supply," Coffman said….

Stripe rust (not Ug99) on a wheat plant, shot by US Agricultural Research Service

Europe wheat harvest to fall on drought, may be catastrophic

Rudy Ruitenberg in Bloomberg: The European Union wheat harvest, which accounts for a fifth of world production, will fall this year as drought cuts yields in France and Poland, said Michel Portier, general director of Paris-based farm adviser Agritel.

“We’re losing yield,” Portier, whose company advises more than 2,000 farmers on crop sales, said in an interview in Paris today at a conference on commodity-industry regulation. “We already know that the 2011 harvest will be below 2010, both in France and in Europe.”

The wheat situation in Europe “will be catastrophic” if the drought continues for another 10 days, and no significant rain is forecast for northern Europe for the period, Portier said. For now the outlook for Black Sea region production is “alright,” which is keeping wheat prices in check, he said.

France, the EU’s largest wheat grower, just had its second- hottest April since 1900 and one of the driest since 1953, the country’s Agriculture Ministry reported this week. European wheat and rapeseed are at an “important tipping point” because stored soil moisture from the winter has been used up, Martell Crop Projections said in a May 2 report.

The EU wheat harvest fell 2.4 percent last year to 135.4 million metric tons, the London-based International Grains Council estimates, on a world wheat crop of 649.6 million tons. The council last month cut its outlook for world production in 2011/12 by 1 million tons to 672 million tons as dry weather in the U.S. and the EU affects crops….

A wheat field in Brandenburg, near Berlin. Shot by unknown photographer, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Government claims no food security problem in Pakistan

The Daily Times (Pakistan): The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MINFA) on Thursday claimed that Pakistan harvested two bumper wheat crops in 2009 and 2010 and has exported one million tonnes of wheat with plans to export up to three million tonnes.

This is despite the fact that the international market is going through an unstable time. Pakistan has also exported rice to the tune of 1.678 million tonnes despite flood damage to the crop. The cereal supplies in the country are plenty and currently, the prices are comparable with the international market. The food departments are releasing wheat to flour mills at Rs 1,000 per 40 kilogrammes (kgs). The government’s move against the unprecedented price hike of onion three months ago has kept the market stable at Rs 40 per kg. The overall price hike is not Pakistan specific. It is being experienced across the globe. The government is expecting arrival of another mega wheat harvest in the next two months.

World Food Programme Head Wolfgang Herbinger denied the comment on wheat price being attributed to him, in a letter received from Rome. It appears that his conversation has been read out of context. The government is also endeavouring to help the needy through Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) by providing monthly financial assistance to over four million households through cash transfers. It is not fair to imply the flood-related insecurity issues to the whole country. Even in flood-affected areas wheat supplies remained satisfactory because the country was having abundance of wheat stocks. Therefore, MINFA categorically denied the views given in the news item and made it clear that food security situation is stable in the country. …

Bagrote Valley Wheat Harvest, shot by Zensky, Wikimedia Commons, nder the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Flood fears prompt Canada to cut wheat crop hopes

Agrimoney: Canada has cut its estimate for its wheat production before a grain of its important spring crop has been sown, citing forecasts for flooding which look set to provide a significant setback to plantings. Farm ministry Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada also trimmed forecasts for stocks of a range o grains, including wheat – which looks set to end 2011-12 with one of its smallest-ever stockpiles..

The wheat crop in the major grain-exporting state will hit 24.5m tonnes this year, an improvement on last year's damp-hampered crop, but 400,000 tonnes below previous hopes, AAFC said. The reduction, which leaves output on course to fall below the five-year average of 24.8m tonnes, reflected the concerns over a wet spring sowing season raised by the prospect of melting of heavy snows onto ground already sodden by last year's rains.

"Despite higher prices, the area seeded to spring wheat area is forecast to increase by only 2% because of very wet soil conditions in some of the wheat growing areas of western Canada," the ministry said. Nonetheless, a downgrade of 160,000 hectares, or roughly 380,000 acres, to the forecast for wheat area remains well short of the losses expected by some other observers…

A wheat harvest in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1922

China readies $1 billion to fight worst wheat drought in 60 years

Jonathan Watts in Solve Climate News in the Guardian: in China has announced a billion dollars in emergency water aid to ease its most severe drought in 60 years, as the United Nations warned of a threat to the harvest of the world's biggest wheat producer. Beijing has also promised to use its grain reserves to reduce the pressure on global food prices, which have surged in the past year to record highs due to the floods in Australia and a protracted dry spell in Russia.

The desperate measures were evident at Baita reservoir in Shandong — one of several key agricultural provinces afflicted by four months without rain. With nearby crops turning yellow, a mechanical digger cut a crude, open-cast well into the dried-up bed of the reservoir. Muddy water from the 16-foot-deep pit was pumped up to the surface via a hose that snaked past a fishing boat stranded on the cracked earth.

As the water spluttered on to his wheat field, farmer Liu Baojin expressed concern the support may have come too late. Despite the emergency well digging and partial compensation from the government, he fears he may have to seek work in the city if his harvest fails. "I guess a third of my crops have already died," he said. "I'm very worried. I've never seen such a dry spell."

The problems are compounded by the growing water demands of cities and industry. On the outskirts of Sishui — which translates as Four Waters due to its historic abundance of rivers and sprints — villagers complain that they are not allowed to use the Si river that runs past their homes because the water is earmarked for the Huajin paper mill and an artificial lake in a nearby urban development….

The Gobi Desert, shot by Junming, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

China snowfalls bring some relief to drought-hit grain belt

Reuters: Snow across drought-hit parts of north and central China brought some relief from a drought threatening winter wheat crops that has raised speculation of higher global prices, state forecasters said on Thursday. The welcome, but so far limited, snowfalls came after the Chinese government said keeping up grain output was important to defeating inflationary expectations driven by rising food prices.

Snow was recorded in the capital Beijing, and parts of Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, some of which have suffered from months without precipitation, Sun Jun, a senior forecaster for China's meteorological service told state radio. "Because the precipitation will be concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, it will have a limited effect on mitigating the drought in northern areas," said Sun….