China food security: inflated crop yields threaten ‘rigour, authority’ of scientific research
- China Comment report says local authorities and agricultural companies fabricated crop yield results to either enhance their image or secure financial support
- President Xi Jinping has labelled food security a ‘top national priority’ amid a growing importance to feed China’s 1.4 billion people
China’s increased efforts to seek technological advancement in agriculture to ensure food security could be undermined by exaggerated figures in crop yield tests, state media has warned.
While record-breaking yields of newly-developed food crop varieties have frequently hit the headlines in recent years, many of the results had been massaged for publicity purposes, said China Comment, a bimonthly magazine produced under the state-backed Xinhua News Agency.
Local authorities and agricultural companies fabricated results to either enhance their image or secure financial support as China, with 1.4 billion mouths to feed, has heavily invested in biotech research and seed development, according to the report published in the magazine’s first issue of 2024.
Excessive production testing activities and lax supervision will inevitably undermine the rigour and authority of scientific research work