China is under increasing pressure to produce more food at home as grain imports surge to record levels and trade tensions rise, prompting top officials to focus on a key part of that task: land.
The country feeds a fifth of the world’s population on less than a tenth of the world’s agricultural land, offset by vast purchases from abroad. Beijing now plans to shift that balance, pushing technology and spending to convert overly salty or polluted land into farmland. Efforts like these are the building blocks of China’s intensive campaign to grow enough to feed its people, a topic likely to come under scrutiny at next week’s third plenary session.
Long a concern, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has placed greater emphasis on self-reliance as ties with the West deteriorate, a possible second Trump term looms and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposes supply risks. Extreme weather, exacerbated by climate change, is also increasingly disrupting its own crops — and those of foreign suppliers.
