Agricultural production is a crucial and fundamental aspect of a stable society in China that depends heavily on the climate situation. With the desire to achieve future sustainable development, China’s government is taking actions to adapt to climate change and to ensure food self-sufficiency. This paper assesses the scientific literature from both domestic and international journals, and the review policies released by the Chinese government, in order to investigate the adaptive actions being taken in China at the scale of the central government, and at the local administration and individual farmer level. The results demonstrate that China’s government has undertaken a multitude of adaptation programs in order to cope with vulnerability in the agricultural sector, and these include the release of stimulus policies, the support of new technological research, and investments in field facilities to strengthen the building of adaptive capacity. At the farmer household level, we found that people are spontaneously adapting to climate change on their own accord by changing the timing of cultivations, and through the selection of other crop species and cultivars. People are also securing non-land-related jobs when confronted with climate disasters. A summary is presented of the various agricultural adaptation policies and technologies. Although China has made great progress in terms of adapting to climate change, there is still more work that needs to be done. This work entails not just agricultural policy stimulation but also non-structural components, such as raising public awareness and providing adaptive skill training, etc. It can be concluded that agriculture sector could seek advantages and avoid disadvantages from adaptation activities by multiple stakeholders from different perspectives, and reduce the adverse effects of climate change. Climate adaptation strategies and actions are important and indispensable components for agricultural development in China, and more advanced technologies and ideologies are needed for a secure future.

The intensive use of groundwater and nitrogen fertilizer has led to serious negative impacts on the environment of the North China Plain (NCP). Water footprint is an emerging approach to assess the consumptive water use and the environmental impacts on winter wheat-summer maize systems. A seven-year rotation experiment was conducted to collect data on wheat and maize growth response to nitrogen rates and irrigation schedules and to explore how the water footprint was affected, using DSSAT 4.6 Wheat and Maize crop models. Results showed that the increase in farm inputs contributed greatly to the increase in water footprint, primarily through the grey water footprint. The water footprints of maize and wheat were more sensitive to the nitrogen rate and irrigation, respectively. An irrigation of 160 mm produced a minimum total water footprint and higher yield for wheat. The grey water footprint of maize increased linearly when the nitrogen rate applied to maize exceeded 60 kg ha⁻¹. Water-saving irrigation with 300 kg ha⁻¹ of nitrogen can maintain a higher grain yield and have little impact on the environment. The approach used and the results can help to develop management strategies to maintain high yields while minimizing the water footprint in NCP.