Climate Adaptation
Russia’s Permafrost Is Melting and Its Farmers Are Cashing In
Researchers are taking soybeans to the next frontier as farmers embrace the in-demand crop.
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Just below the Arctic tundra, in the vast plains that blanket much of northern Russia, a once-unthinkable business is taking hold: soybean farming.
It's the result of years of rising global temperatures, which are thawing the permafrost and turning the land into fertile soil, and now Agronomist Gennady Bochkovsky is helping to take the crop to the next frontier, testing whether the beans can handle the upper areas of the Moscow region. So far, he says, the results are promising.