Explainer | What is the state of China’s food-security drive, and what must be done to feed its people?
- From technology to tumultuous trade ties, China is finding it a challenge to guarantee sufficient crop yields, but drastic measures are being taken
- Climate change and supply-chain upheavals have also forced a rethink on how best to ensure that critical grains remain abundant
China’s leaders have been ramping up efforts for years to ensure there is enough food to feed the country’s 1.4 billion people, but this effort has been given greater impetus amid heightened tensions with the West and the war in Ukraine – geopolitical factors that affect imports and supply chains.
Beijing’s approach is to seek greater self-sufficiency by putting an emphasis on the domestic supply of staple foods. While government grain reserves have remained abundant, as Beijing has reiterated over the years, the country’s overall food self-sufficiency rate has been falling since 2000.
In this article, we explore six major challenges faced by China in its agricultural-security drive.
Low efficiency, lack of advanced technology
Despite annual grain harvests surpassing more than 650 million tonnes for the past eight years, China is facing growing pressure in stabilising or increasing that level, mainly due to inadequate productivity and efficiency.
This output is supported by 490 million people in rural areas, or nearly 35 per cent of the Chinese population, according to official population data as of last year.
In comparison, the US produced about 570 million tonnes of major grains last year, with around 66 million people, or 20 per cent of its total population, living in rural areas, according to its 2020 census.