This aerial photo taken on July 15, 2023 shows a farmer harvesting wheat in Hutubi County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Over 10 million mu of wheat in Xinjiang has been harvested up to now. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By TANG Zhexiao

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China has achieved summer grain harvest totaled 146.13 million tons.

As the well-known Chinese saying goes, "food is the paramount necessity of the people." The harvest offers relief for the inflation-plagued world.

For China, 2022 was an undoubtedly challenging year for agriculture, primarily due to climate shocks, said The Diplomat, noting that, "Despite numerous challenges, official statistics from China suggest that the country's food security has actually been well safeguarded due to China's growing domestic production and massive stockpiles. "

China feeds about one-fifth of world's population with less than nine percent of the world's arable land, which itself is a great contribution to global food security already.

Setting the food security strategy

Food in hand, means peace in mind.

China has prioritized food security for years. The arable land is protected as much as protecting pandas, making every effort to keep its total arable land of no less than 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), said an official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

No nation in recent years has been more aggressive, both domestically and abroad in addressing its food security issues than China, according to the magazine World Grain.

China has increased its efforts to clean up domestic farmland by reforming rural land rights and investing in water-saving technologies, said Nikkei Asia, adding that the Chinese government has also invested in the development of "future foods" like plant-based eggs and meat grown from animal cells as part of its self-sufficiency push.

Substantial progress in curbing loss and waste in food production and consumption has also been made. To complement China's Anti-Food Waste Law, the country released The Food Conservation Action Plan, hoping to improve its food supply chains, particularly when it comes to grain and grain-related products, to achieve stable food security by 2025.

China ranked 25th out of 113 countries in the 2022 Global Food Security Index, published by The Economist, which measures food affordability, availability, quality and safety, and natural resources and resilience.

It's one of the top five countries that has shown the most improvement over the past 10 years, said the World Economic Forum's website.

Promoting global cooperation

"It's extremely important that we maintain global food security," Agnes Kalibata, the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy told Global Times, "We have agreed globally that we have a responsibility to deal with the challenge of hunger. China is a good global nation, and a good global citizen has an obligation to contribute to this," she said.

Since 2013, China has signed agricultural and fishery cooperation documents with more than 80 countries, and more than 650 agricultural investment cooperation projects have been carried out in countries along the Belt and Road, according to World Grain.

With vast territory and rich agricultural resources, the Belt and Road region is "An important area for China's agricultural cooperation and trade, and plays a significant role in ensuring food security and agricultural product safety," Ma Lili, dean of the School of Economics and Management at Northwest University, said at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office.

In countries including those along the Belt and Road, China has enhanced agricultural investment and cooperation, and provided assistance to improve the production capacity. Official statistics show that in crop production, animal husbandry, farmland water conservancy, and agricultural products processing, China has facilitated over 1,500 technology transfers across the world, which has benefited over 1.5 million households of farmers.

China has been the ASEAN's largest trading partner for the past 13 years, and trade in agricultural products plays a vital role, said Kao Kim Hourn, ASEAN Secretary-General at the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual conference held in March.

Qu Sixi, the representative and country director of the United Nations World Food Programme in China, said the country's food security is a significant contribution to the world, and has played a significant role in sharing its lessons, experiences and resources with other developing countries.

As the white paper Food Security in China said, "Observing WTO rules, China will do all it can to make the international food supply more secure, stable and rational in order to better safeguard the food security of our world."