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Explainer | China food security: 5 major concerns, from loss of fertile land to tumbling soybean output
- Self-sufficiency in grains is a policy priority for the Chinese government, which wants to ensure the country can weather external uncertainty
- Beijing is pushing for a breakthrough in biotechnology and seed production, while trying to ensure enough arable land is set aside for crops
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In August 2020, a few weeks after stressing the importance of steady grain supply, Chinese President Xi Jinping made an unusual instruction for people not to waste food, which soon turned into a national campaign.
Since then, Beijing has ramped up its rhetoric around safeguarding food security. The issue has been thrown into the spotlight amid disruptions to the global agricultural supply chain caused by the coronavirus pandemic and heightened diplomatic tensions with the West.
Greater self-sufficiency in grains remains a policy priority for the government ahead of the 20th National People’s Congress to be held in the second half of the year.
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Experts have warned that the Chinese agricultural sector is losing competitiveness to other major producers, with multiple weak links that need to be resolved.
We take a look at five areas concerning food security that have drawn attention in China.
02:01
China urges citizens to stockpile ‘daily necessities’, sparking fears of food shortages
China urges citizens to stockpile ‘daily necessities’, sparking fears of food shortages
1. Declining domestic soybean and oil crop output
More than 80 per cent of the soybeans China consumes each year are imported. While imports have allowed land to be allocated for the production of other crops, notably staples like rice and wheat, the dependence on overseas soybeans has been long viewed as the Achilles’ heel in national food security.
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