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In China food security has been a stated policy priority for years. But the trade war with the US, Covid-19 pandemic, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine mean Beijing’s preoccupation with self-sufficiency has only grown since 2020. In 2022, president Xi Jinping stated: “We will fall under other’s control if we do not hold our rice bowls steady.”
As the Chinese economy has grown to become the world’s second largest, rapid urbanisation has put an increasing pressure on farmland. At the same time the average Chinese diet has changed to include more meat, dairy, and processed foods. But less than 12 per cent of China’s land is classed as arable by the World Bank. That compares with 17 per cent in the US, a country of roughly the same area, but with less than a quarter of the population.
China has also yet to adopt genetically modified crop varieties at scale because of consumer resistance to the idea and a fear of relying on imported GM seeds. Inefficiency is another key concern. For example, corn output per hectare in China is 40 per cent lower than in the US. China has been a net importer of agricultural products since 2004. It is now the leading purchaser of products, including soybeans, corn, and rice.
Beijing is relying on a raft of strategies to enhance its food security, including forging closer agricultural ties with allies such as Brazil. Brazil is now China’s largest agricultural supplier by value, providing around 20 per cent of China’s agricultural imports. Beijing is also diversifying its import sources and has signed more than 100 agricultural co-operation agreements with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, its global infrastructure scheme.
Domestically, authorities have reclaimed more than 170,000 hectares of farmland since 2021. In October last year the government preliminarily greenlit 37 genetically modified corn varieties and 14 soybean varieties for planting after years of public controversy over the technology’s safety.
Despite measures like this, however, experts say that Beijing has limited capacity to force farmers to align their cropping plans with its self-sufficiency targets. The average farm size in China is less than one hectare, meaning top level directives, such as adopting high tech farming practises, can be difficult to implement. But with China’s farm production being hindered by increasingly severe floods and drought, driven, scientists say, by global warming, its focus on food security is only set to intensify.
