Threats to China’s food security & its global implications
China as the most populous country of the world, the problem of feeding a robust 1.40 billion people in China is increasingly becoming problematic due to increasing demand, shrinking arable land, declining soil fertility, increasing fertilizer intensity amid climatic change and sustainability threats. Recently addressing a meeting of the Central Commission for Financial& Economic Affairs (CCFEA), Chinese President XI Jinping highlighted food security as “a major issue for the country.” As climatic change is becoming a reality that could not be ignored and temperature regimes and rain cycles are changing in intensity and frequency, the problem assumes further complexity.
In the same address Xi underscored that arable land is the “lifeblood of food production” and called for undertaking efforts to strengthen farmland protection and improve the quality of farmland for increasing production. The concerns expressed by Xi could be seen in the context of disruption in the global food supply chain due to the Russia- Ukraine conflict and the recent forecast of the China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that there would be a 0,9% decline in the summer output of food, besides climatic change.
China is the largest producer of agricultural products accounting for more than 25% of global agricultural production by value. It primarily produces rice, wheat, potatoes, tomato, sorghum, peanuts, tea, millet, barely cotton, oilseed, corn and soyabeans.
When it comes to food grains, according to official data, China’s grain production has exceeded 650 million tonnes for seven consecutive years including a historic high of 682 million tonnes in 2021. Rice, maize and wheat are the three major crops of China, and the production of these
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