Warming Leads to Lower Rice Quality in East Asia

Rice quality, which is intricately connected to market value and human nutrition, is sensitive to weather conditions. However, the relative importance of the different climatic factors is poorly understood, and the impact of climate change on rice quality has been little studied on a large scale. Here, using more than 35 years of rice quality data, we present the first effort to determine the key climate variables driving rice quality in China and Japan. Results show a significant decline in high quality rice rate (HRR, an indicator of rice quality), mainly driven by warm nighttime temperatures when they exceed a critical threshold estimated at 18°C and 12°C in China and Japan, respectively. Climate projections suggest a continuing decreasing trend in HRR under moderate and high emission scenarios by 2100. These findings emphasize the importance of breeding new heat tolerant cultivars to maintain stable rice quality in the future.