Eggplants the Size of Strawberries: China Faces Devastating Crop Failures

Hundreds of persimmon trees that should be loaded with yellow fruit lie wilted in Gan Bingdong’s greenhouse in southwestern China, adding to mounting farm losses in a scorching summer that is the country’s driest in six decades.
Gan’s farm south of the industrial metropolis of Chongqing lost half its vegetable crop in heat as high as 106 degrees Fahrenheit and a drought that has shrunk the giant Yangtze River and wilted crops across central China.
Gan’s surviving eggplant