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Strategic cropland reserves can strengthen China’s food security

Nature Food volume 5, pages 535–538 (2024)Cite this article

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Policies for supporting domestic grain production propose converting large areas of marginal and low-grade arable land into strategic cropland reserves. This process will require advances in science and land engineering, and presents opportunities to revitalize social, economic and ecological systems in rural China.

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Fig. 1: OECD–FAO outlook for area harvested, yield, domestic production per capita, demand and imports, and reserves (ending stock) for major crops in China.
Fig. 2: Examples of high-standard farmland construction including cultivated land consolidation, provision of roads and electricity, and modernization of irrigation and drainage systems in Shaanxi Province, China.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Shaanxi Province ‘High-level Talents Special Support Plan’ Outstanding Talents Project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shaanxi Provincial Land Engineering Construction Group Co., Ltd., Xi’an, China

    Jichang Han & Yang Zhang

  2. Key Laboratory of Degraded and Unused Land Consolidation Engineering, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xi’an, China

    Jichang Han & Yang Zhang

  3. School of Land Engineering, Chang’an University, Xi’an, China

    Jichang Han & Yang Zhang

  4. School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Brett Anthony Bryan

Authors
  1. Jichang Han
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  2. Brett Anthony Bryan
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  3. Yang Zhang
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Correspondence to Jichang Han.

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Competing interests

J.H. and Y.Z. work for the Shaanxi Provincial Land Engineering Construction Group Co., Ltd., a Chinese, state-owned land engineering company.

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Nature Food thanks Rachael Garrett, Nelson Villoria and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Han, J., Bryan, B.A. & Zhang, Y. Strategic cropland reserves can strengthen China’s food security. Nat Food 5, 535–538 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01015-9

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