The Chinese leadership has ambitious plans to become self-sufficient in grain production by 2025.
One of the most important ingredients for success is the struggle for yield.
This year, China said goodbye to 90-year-old breeder Yuan Longping. And in the same year, his team of followers managed to harvest a record harvest of rice: 667 centners per hectare .
This breakthrough has been made with hybrid varieties.
667 kg / ha is a number that rice growers from other countries never dreamed of.
For example, in Australia, almost no one has yet been able to collect more than 100 c / ha, while in Russia they collect an average of 50 c / ha.
True, at the moment, such a yield is far from the average for the country.
However, this season, China has harvested 2.7% more rice than a year earlier. And this inspires to hatch new ambitious plans.
14th Five-Year Plan Will Make China Food Independent
This five-year plan will run from 2021 to 2025. By the end of the year, the Celestial Empire plans to harvest at least 692 million tons of grain annually.
In 2020, the harvest amounted to 669 million tons.
There are also high expectations for the new season.
For example, the USDA estimates that in 2021-2022. China will be able to harvest at least 136 million tons of wheat, as well as 149 million tons of rice.
It is also important that China plans to introduce only 2.7 million tons of rice into the country in the new season.
And this is the minimum value of imports, which will indicate that the country is really moving to food independence.
As for corn, it is planned to harvest the most of it in the new season: 268 million tons.
However, self-sufficiency in corn has not yet been ensured.
The US Department of Agriculture assumes that in 2021-2022. China imports at least 26 million tons of this crop, and this is the maximum value, which is twice the figure of three years ago.
«Grain production will continue to grow and China’s food security will be fully guaranteed during the 14th Five-Year Plan,» said Mei Xiurong, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
The current annual consumption of rice in China is about 150 million tons.
And if it is possible to increase the yield by an additional few percent, then this can make China no longer an importer, but an exporter of this crop.
