China unveils crop farming plan to boost grain capacity by 2030

BEIJING, Sept. 17 -- China will steadily enhance its comprehensive grain production capacity by 2030 and hold the bottom line of basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute security in staple foods, according to the national crop farming development plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Under the plan, by 2030 China will consolidate and enhance the production capacity of soybeans, oilseeds, cotton and sugar crops to maintain a reasonable level of self-sufficiency, and ensure balanced, diverse and safe supplies of vegetables, fruits and tea.

The plan also sets targeted measures for different crops and regions.

Placing strong emphasis on the green transition, the plan calls for agricultural water conservation and more meticulous use of fertilizer and pesticides.

It also highlights the leading role of new quality productive forces in agriculture, including breeding and promoting breakthrough varieties and applying intelligent machinery.

Technology already contributes more than 64 percent to China's agricultural output growth.

The crop farming plan is aligned with the plan to accelerate agricultural and rural modernization during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) period, which sets a target of increasing the country's comprehensive grain production capacity to 1.45 trillion jin (about 725 million tonnes) by 2030.

"The 15th Five-Year Plan period is critical for basically achieving agricultural and rural modernization," said Zhao Changbao, director of the Rural Economy Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, in a recent article.

"Continuously raising the land output rate, resource utilization rate and labor productivity is an inevitable choice for responding to changes at home and abroad, consolidating the foundation of agricultural development and safeguarding national food security," he said.

Zhao noted that the plan dovetails with the requirement of the plan to accelerate agricultural and rural modernization during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) period to boost output and production capacity, production and ecology, and output and income simultaneously.

China's grain security foundation has continued to strengthen. The country's grain output reached about 714.9 million tonnes in 2025, marking the second straight year with grain output above 700 million tonnes.

The plan comes as global food security faces mounting headwinds. The 2026 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, released in July by five United Nations specialized agencies, estimated that about 645 million people, or 7.8 percent of the global population, were affected by hunger in 2025.

China feeds nearly 20 percent of the world's population with less than 9 percent of its arable land, and has kept its grain self-sufficiency rate at a high level.