China food security: Beijing calls for biotech breakthrough to improve seed industry

China’s top leaders have signalled a push to improve the nation’s seed industry as part of a campaign to ensure food security

Concerns about food supply have heightened this year due to reports of grain shortages and disruptions from the pandemic

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China’s top leaders have signalled a push to improve the nation’s seed industry amid concern over food security. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:30am, 23 Dec 2020Updated: 11:06am, 23 Dec 2020

Some 3,000 years after Chinese farmers domesticated soybeans, the government is calling for another biotechnology breakthrough in the seed industry to improve food security.

Concerns about food supply have heightened in China this year amid reports of grain shortages and a call from President Xi Jinping to cut back on “shocking” food waste.

Disruptions to food supply chains due to the coronavirus pandemic and China’s reliance on imported soybeans, including from geopolitical rival the United States, have only increased the sense of vulnerability.

Beijing has boosted oversight of grain reserves this year, but for the first time last week the country’s top leaders said steps would be taken to improve the seed industry.

“China’s seed industry has made great progress, but there is still a big gap with the most advanced international levels

Han Wenxiu

The country “must strive for technological breakthroughs in seeds” and “battle to turn the seed industry around”, policymakers said in a statement released on Friday at the end of the Central Economic Work Conference, which set economic policy priorities for 2021.

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