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 North China Plain (NCP) is a cereal production base in China. However, the understanding of how climate extremes affect cereal production during past decades in the region is limited. Based on the statistical data of climate disasters and cultivated areas during 1950-2015, the relationship between regional cereal production and four meteorological disasters was examined. The results showed that during 1950-1980, the cultivated area for cereal production increased, accounting for 80-85% of the total cultivated area, but gradually decreased in the second 30 years after 1980. Flood disaster was the greatest in intensity compared with the other three meteorological disasters; drought was the most widespread and impactful. The effects of the four disasters became more noteworthy after 1980, and the spatiotemporal trend in the NCP was similar. Flood and drought had significant effects (P < 0.01) on cereal yield with path coefficients of -0.355 and -0.344, respectively. The harvest areas declined slowly and the yield increased slightly during the 7 disaster window years, suggesting that technology advancement offset the decline in cultivated areas and increased the yield. The effect of climate extremes on cereal production could be addressed through technology improvement and the implementation of preventive measures in the NCP.