In the struggle for food independence, China is increasing the area under crops

Chinese authorities are actively seizing areas that used to be business centers, hypermarkets or parks to sow them with corn, rice or soybeans. So goes the campaign to ensure China’s food independence and the country’s ability to feed itself in the event of complete lockdown due to Western sanctions. Experts, however, doubt the effectiveness of this form of struggle for food independence.

In China, a campaign is gaining momentum, the goal of which is to ensure the country’s independence in terms of food production. According to Financial Times, since 2021, the authorities have seized more than 170 thousand hectares of land. “China should be able to feed its people on its own,” Xi Jinping declared last year. “We will be controlled by others if we cannot fill our own bowl with rice.” The country now relies almost entirely on soybean imports from the US and Brazil, and the share of corn imports has risen from 1% to 7% over the past decade.

According to the authorities, for self-sufficiency, China needs to plant and maintain about 120 million hectares of farmland.

However, the formal appropriation of lands once bought out by businesses for their own needs and projects is not enough for China to start feeding itself, analysts and FT interlocutors say.

“In reality, it’s hard to get reclaimed land to suddenly become fertile again, because you can’t just plant soybean seeds in a field and then leave,” explains Darin Friedrichs, director of market research at Sitonia Consulting. could buy seeds, fertilizers, and equipment that are relatively nearby, and when you harvest, you will need merchants in the area who are willing to buy them, or places to store them.”

For example, in Chengdu alone, the authorities seized 6,700 hectares of land, which led to the closure of many companies in the city. Now in their place are fields with much more weeds than crops, the correspondents of the newspaper were convinced. Chengdu has set a goal of producing an additional 96,000 tons of rice, corn and soybeans annually by 2026, roughly equivalent to 4% of last year’s total grain production.

At the same time, the authorities are experiencing serious problems with the implementation of their plans, since young people see no reason to work in the fields, having the opportunity to earn many times more at local factories.

But the Chengdu administration said that half-empty and abandoned fields are not a problem. “We are returning these plots to send a signal that we care about food security,” one of the local officials told the newspaper. “The result is not the main thing.”

Kirill Sarkhanyants