China is facing increased pressure to produce more food at home, as grain imports soar to record levels and trade tensions mount. That’s spurring top officials to zero in on an essential component of that task: land.
The country feeds a fifth of the global population with less than a 10th of the world’s arable area, offset by massive purchases from abroad. Beijing is now out to shift that balance, pushing technology and spending to turn swathes too briny or polluted into farmable tracts. Efforts such as this are the building blocks of China’s intensifying campaign to grow enough for its people, a topic likely to be scrutinized at its third plenum meetings next week.
Though a long-time concern, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has placed increased emphasis on self-reliance as ties with the West fray, a potential second Trump term looms and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine lays supply risks bare. Extreme weather, worsened by climate change, is also increasingly disrupting its own harvests — and those of suppliers abroad.
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