Rice is one of the main staple foods in China and plays an extremely important role in ensuring the country’s food security.
Therefore, the impacts of climate change on rice yields have garnered considerable attention. In this study, meteorological and
rice yield records during 1951-2011 from the Reclamation area (RA) and general agricultural area (GAA) in the Heilongjiang
province of Northeast China were used to assess the impacts of climate change on rice yield trends using multiple regression
models during the pre- (1951-1981) and post- (1982-2011) Household Responsibility System Reform (HRSR) periods. The
results demonstrated an observable warming, but the precipitation and solar radiation changes were not statistically significant in
the Heilongjiang province. The temperature during the growing season positively correlated with the rice yields in the RA and
GAA over the past six decades. The rice yields increased by 4.69% in the RA and 6.85% in the GAA for each degree increase in
the growing season (GS) minimum temperature from 1951 to 2011. The positive effects of warming on the rice yields decreased
significantly in the RA from the pre-HRSR (1951-1981) to the post-HRSR (1982-2011) period but increased in the GAA from
the pre-HRSR to the post-HRSR period. This result indicated that the increased RA rice yields may benefit more from nonclimatic
factors than GAA yields. Our findings uncover the potential impacts of climate change on rice production under
different crop production modes and thus provide evidence-based suggestions for government policy on adaptive strategies.