The Role of Agriculture in Modern China

Introduction China’s agriculture has successfully met the challenge of feeding 1.4 billion people with 95-percent food self-sufficiency; the question, however, is whether this can be sustained. Can China’s current agricultural output keep pace with its future food needs? China’s experiments with agriculture have had mixed results in the past. What is certain is that today, it is among the world’s largest producers and consumers of food. Given the need to maintain social stability, food security is a key priority for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Despite a projected decrease in population, food demand has grown. [1] Meanwhile, land and water scarcity, environmental degradation, and a shrinking rural workforce, threaten the long-term sustainability of China’s food self-sufficiency.