President Xi Jinping wants China’s agricultural technology to accelerate efforts to achieve self-reliance in this field, identifying seed development and core equipment among areas to focus on, state media reported. Xi Jinping wants an acceleration in China’s agricultural technology.
“It is necessary to keep an eye on the frontiers of the world’s agricultural science and technology,” the official Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying at the central rural work conference held in Beijing over Friday and Saturday. Xi Jinping’s China urges the agricultural sector to “vigorously improve” its science and technology, with more efficient innovation. Xi urged the sector to address issues with innovation.
Although China’s agricultural output is the largest in the world, only 10% of its total land area can be cultivated. China’s arable land, which represents 10% of the total arable land in the world, supports over 20% of the world’s population. Of this approximately 1.4 million square kilometers of arable land, only about 1.2% (116,580 square kilometers) permanently supports crops and 525,800 square kilometers are irrigated. China’s agricultural land is divided into approximately 200 million households, with an average land allocation of just 0.65 hectares (1.6 acres).
China’s limited space for farming has been a problem throughout its history, leading to chronic food shortages and famine. While the production efficiency of farmland has grown over time, efforts to expand to the west and the north have met with limited success, as such land is generally colder and drier than traditional farmlands to the east. Since the 1950s, farm space has also been pressured by the increasing land needs of industry and cities.
