A performance evaluation meeting for the National Key Research and Development Project of China, "Impact of Global Change on Cereal Yield and Quality," was held in Beijing on Dec 26, 2024. The meeting was chaired by Dr. Wu Wenbin, a professor at the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (IARRP), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS). 

Professor Wu presided over the meeting and outlined the key requirements for the project's performance evaluation. The evaluation group, comprising seven experts, was led by Tang Huajun, an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at CAAS. The evaluation group, project leaders, and several core team members attended the meeting.

The project "Impact of Global Change on Grain Yield and Quality" was led by IARRP in partnership with five other leading research agencies across China. This project addresses the knowledge gap, including the lack of systematic research on the impacts of climate change on cereal yield and quality, as well as the absence of comprehensive adaptative strategies against climate change in China. The project was conducted following the "Impact Mechanisms—Adaptive Strategies" line. Specifically, it focused on a study period spanning the past 60 years and future warming scenarios (2°C and above), employed an integrated approach that combines remote sensing, crop modeling, attribution analysis, and spatial panel models, along with controlled environment and field experiments over different regional scales. After five years of collaborative efforts, the teams have elucidated the impact mechanisms of climate change on cereal yield and quality, uncovered the risk to food security in China and the globe under warming scenarios, and proposed adaptive strategies to mitigate future climate risks. The achievements of this project contribute significantly to strategic national priorities, such as ensuring food security and promoting high-quality agricultural development.

In detail, the project team submitted and shared 15 datasets, including long-term spatial distribution data for major crops, a climate change and crop quality database, and risk assessment datasets under different warming scenarios. In addition, they developed techniques for identifying and extracting crop spatial distributions, introduced integrated simulation methods for assessing climate change impacts on crop quality, and proposed adaptation strategies for breadbasket regions in China under various warming scenarios. These achievements resulted in the publication of 103 high-impact papers in journals such as Nature Food, Nature Communications, One Earth, Remote Sensing of Environment, Global Change Biology, and Earth System Science Data. Meanwhile, eight invention patents were granted, seven software copyrights were filed, and four monographs were published. The project has trained 70 graduate students, including 23 doctoral students. Several team members earned professional rank advancements and were selected for the Ministry of Education's Changjiang Scholars Program and national-level youth talent initiatives. Additionally, several policy advisory reports were submitted and received affirmative endorsements, significantly contributing to the project's overall goals. These outcomes provide robust scientific support for China's agricultural sector to respond to climate change proactively.

The evaluation expert group reviewed reports from four sub-projects, conducted inquiries and discussions, and assessed and scored their performance. The expert group unanimously concluded that all sub-projects had fulfilled the tasks and assessment indicators specified in the project agreement and reasonably expended the project funds. All sub-projects successfully passed the performance evaluation.