China food security: floods leave grain crops filthy, inviting pests and disease as Typhoon Khanun looms
- Reeling from one storm and bracing for another, farmers in Heilongjiang province have appeared on social media begging for help protecting their crops, including rice
- Harvest appears to be affected, and severe weather conditions like these are posing challenges to China’s food-security drive

Farmers across a region known as China’s northern granary are pleading for help to mitigate crop damage from floods as Typhoon Khanun threatens output with more heavy rainfall that could bring bugs and blight.
In two days, videos uploaded by farmers asking for assistance went viral on Chinese social media, as they feared that all of the silt that has accumulated on blossoming rice crops could reduce yields.
“We want to use a high-pressure water gun to flush the silt off, but this is too much work, and we desperately need help from real experts from all fields,” a Heilongjiang woman said in one of the videos.
Typhoon Doksuri hit China’s northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, known as the country’s breadbasket. They contributed more than one-fifth of the country’s grain production, one-fourth of the country’s grain commodities, and one-third of its grain export last year, data from the State Council shows.