China food security: farmers in Jilin leave fields fallow as lockdown threatens corn supply
- Jilin province is home to 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) of high-quality corn fields that account for 10 per cent of the national total
- But lockdowns have prevented farmers from tending fields and bans on interregional travel are disrupting transport of agricultural goods
Food security concerns are mounting in China as lockdowns show no signs of easing in the major corn-growing province of Jilin ahead of spring ploughing.
“There are crop-straws all over the fields now,” said Dong, whose family farms two hectares (5 acres) of corn fields in Lishu. “It is impossible to plant the seeds.”
Dong, who gave only his surname, said farmers would normally be stubble-cleaning, ridging and fertilising to prepare for seeding at the beginning of May.
“Now no one is allowed to go out,” he said. “And the agricultural stores have no seeds and fertilisers. Even if they have, farmers can’t go out to buy.”
02:23
China’s Jilin province remains Covid-19 epicentre of country’s latest pandemic wave
Jilin province is home to 4.2 million hectares (10.4 million acres) of corn fields that account for 10 per cent of the national total, official figures showed.
