Why can Fujian harvest two rice crops each year?

Fujian is able to harvest two rice crops each year due to a combination of favorable climatic conditions and historical agricultural advancements.

The province’s coastal areas experience a semitropical climate with a growing period that lasts throughout the year, providing the necessary warmth for multiple harvests. This environmental capacity is complemented by the historical introduction of early-maturing rice varieties from Champa. Unlike native strains that required 150 days to mature, these imported varieties ripened much faster—initially in 100 days and eventually in even shorter periods—which made double cropping feasible.12

By the 16th century, the widespread adoption of these early-ripening strains, alongside the development of terraced paddies, established the practice of harvesting two, and sometimes three, crops of rice annually. Today, the first crop is typically harvested in June and the second in September.23