President Xi Jinping has issued a mandate to expand grain production as China moves to shield its food supply from global volatility, calling for renewed efforts to modernise agriculture and rural areas over the coming year.
Speaking at a two-day work conference in Beijing that ended on Tuesday, Xi urged a “no-relaxation” approach to grain output and called for higher overall production capacity and efficiency by integrating high-quality land, seeds, machinery and farming techniques.
“We must improve the effectiveness of policies to strengthen agriculture, benefit rural areas and enrich farmers, and promote the maintenance of grain and other key agricultural products at reasonable price levels,” he said, according to a readout of the meeting from state news agency Xinhua.
Beijing has identified agricultural modernisation and rural development as central to its broader economic goals. At the meeting, the leadership stressed the need to speed up China’s rise as an “agricultural powerhouse”.
Food security has taken on added urgency amid a volatile geopolitical climate, with self-reliance increasingly seen as a critical buffer against external shocks from major exporters such as the United States and Russia.
Earlier this year, Beijing temporarily suspended imports of American soybeans after US President Donald Trump launched his second trade war. Tensions have pushed China towards Brazilian supplies even as it steps up domestic production capacity.
Officials at this week’s meeting vowed to intensify a nationwide drive to raise grain production capacity by an additional 50 million tonnes by 2030. The plan, launched last year, targets an average grain yield of about 420kg (926lbs) per mu of fertile land. There are 15 mu to a hectare (2.4711 acres).
The initiative echoed calls by the National Development and Reform Commission last week to promote rural revitalisation over the next five years, including measures targeting soybean and corn output.
Officials at this week’s meeting also pledged to deepen rural reforms, including the full roll-out of pilot programmes in selected provinces to extend land contracts by a further 30 years after current contracts expire around 2027, as well as to innovate investment and financing mechanisms for rural revitalisation.
China’s total grain output grew 1.2 per cent year on year to reach 714.9 million tonnes in 2025, according to data released this month by the National Bureau of Statistics. The average yield reached 399.1kg (880lbs) per mu, a 1.1 per cent increase from last year.
Imports of soybeans – the agricultural product China most relies on from overseas markets – grew 7.3 per cent in volume year on year in the first 11 months of 2025, customs data showed. Meanwhile, corn imports between January and November plunged 86.1 per cent in volume amid the country’s self-sufficiency drive. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
