Agricultural innovation proved vital for ensuring food security in China

China achieved another bumper grain harvest this summer, with the country’s accumulative summer grain output rising 2.5 percent from a year earlier to reach 149.78 million tons, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on July 12.

The bumper summer harvest is expected to lay a solid foundation for the full-year grain yield, as summer grain output usually accounts for about a quarter of China’s annual grain output.

As climatic conditions rapidly change on globe, caused by massive greenhouse gas emissions, more frequent and intensifying weather events are being observed globally, including extreme heat, protracted rainstorms and floods, as well as drought in some regions.

Climate change has become a serious threat to global food security, sustainable development and poverty eradication. Against the backdrop of the global warming, countries around the world, especially the developing countries need to strengthen cooperation in agriculture and agricultural technology in order to produce more food through pragmatic cooperation.

China has been advancing agricultural technology as a key driving force to accelerate the pace of the agricultural and rural modernization. During this process, ensuring the stable and safe supply of grain and other important agricultural products has remained the top priority.

The country has seen a growth in the average yield per hectare, despite facing a growing number of extreme weather patterns, including heat waves and downpours in summer time.

Thanks to an array of significant technological innovations and continuous investment in agricultural infrastructure, China’s grain production has basically stabilized in recent years. This year’s summer grain output per hectare reached 5,628 kilograms, an increase of 2.5 percent or 135.4 kilograms from last year, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Efforts have been made to improve production capacity in the agriculture sector, promote agricultural technology progress and accelerate agricultural reform. The use of cutting-edge farming technology and time-saving equipment, including modern agricultural machinery, are leading to more efficient grain production.

By developing more agricultural-use hardware and software, and step up investment in agricultural infrastructure, China has the capability to grow more crops on non-arable land, such as deserts and saline-alkali land.

Technological innovation has become an integral part of China’s efforts to safeguard food security for more than 1.4 billion people. In 2022, China launched projects to achieve breakthroughs in core agricultural technologies and key projects of seeding and breeding, with breakthroughs in the nurturing of seeds as well as agricultural mechanization in the vast rural regions in the country.

China’s total grain production was 695.41 million tons in 2023, an increase of 8.88 million tons or 1.3 percent compared with a year earlier. China’s grain yield per unit area was 390 kg/mu, an increase of 2.9 kg/mu or 0.8 percent over 2022. The country is expected to continue to improve its agricultural technology and make better use of all agricultural resources to shore up the country’s grain output.

Tags: China, wheat