China cannot be complacent about food security and must guard against crop threats, says agriculture minister
- In 2020, China produced 669.5 million tonnes of food, up 5.65 million tonnes on the previous year
- China stores fish genetic material and is building storage centres for germplasm, a potential solution to help grow enough food for the population
China must not be optimistic with its food production with the challenges ahead this year, its agriculture and rural minister warned on Friday, despite encouraging wheat production figures in the past year that he described as a “sigh of relief”.
“Food production going forward must ‘force five passes and slay six generals’,” said Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Tang Renjian, using a Chinese proverb meaning there was an immense challenge, at a media briefing at the annual meeting of China’s legislature and top political consultative body.
“Going forward we have to guard against the spring freeze, the spring drought, withering, hot and dry winds and lastly continuous rain.”
In 2020, China produced 669.5 million tonnes of food, up 5.65 million tonnes year-on-year, according to its National Bureau of Statistics. Since 2015, the country has produced 650 million tonnes of food every year, which is also the food production goal in 2021.
While there is strong domestic supply of rice and wheat – China’s two staple grains – and imports of the produce by foreign businesses satisfied less than 3 per cent of their supply in the country, Tang said a gap existed between food production per area of land in China and that in developed countries.