Yangtze River, the largest river in Asia is dealing with the worst floods in has seen in decades. As monsoon season in progress, the Yangtze river basin, which is particularly prone to flood and is home to abundance of fertile farmland in China, has been largely affected, and with more torrential rain coming to this area in the following weeks it will make the situation even worse. 

Residents in the region are familiar and prepared for flooding every year they haven’t seen flooding this intense and so frequently in two decades. Due to persistent high waters in tributaries along the river, several smaller dams have been destroyed and have released water into drainage levees where farmlands are located. 

Anhui province, visited by USRPA in 2019, is one of the areas that has been hit with severe flooding. The rice research station in Lujiang, located downstream of one tributary of Yangtze River, is under six and a half feet of flood water. The 2020 flood is reported to compare to 1998 flood, where over 4,000 lives were lost during the disaster. Thankfully, this year many homes were evacuated before the flooding came and countless lives were saved. Unfortunately, the economic and social losses remain huge in terms of damaged plants, inventories and properties. Industry reports in China indicate that the overall effect on rice production is not yet known but as additional floods develop and information is revealed, imports from nearby countries such as Pakistan and India will be needed to fill domestic supply demands and in this case it will have impact on regional rice trade.   

We are deeply concerned about USRPA’s friends in the region and glad to know all of them are safe. We wish the people in the region our best and for life to return to normal quickly.