China’s plans for food self-sufficiency aren’t going as expected. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
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China’s quest for becoming more food-secure is getting interrupted by extreme weather challenges. Torrential rains and floods have battered most of the nation in recent days and weeks. The South China Morning Post says that’s threatening the productivity of a farming industry that’s already lacking in efficiency.
The Chinese government issued 238 million yuan, equivalent to 32.8 million dollars, in emergency funding for recovering agricultural production in five provinces. The funds will be used to help curb agricultural losses and to lay the foundation for a solid autumn grain harvest, which would likely make up most of the year’s food output in the country.
China’s been pushing for increasing food self-sufficiency but increasing occurrences of extreme weather events in recent years have made it difficult. Beijing began the push for self-sufficiency to help feed its extensive population of 1.4 billion people amid the increasingly uncertain global food market.
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Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet News Hour and The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.