Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 11/2014

China's Global Agricultural Strategy: An Open System to Safeguard the Country's Food Security

Cheng Guoqiang, Zhang Hongzhou

October 2014

S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies

Abstract

National food security will continue to be the top strategic issue confronting Chinese policymakers. In the next two decades of rapid income growth, China’s total demand for agricultural products will increase in the face of diminishing water and land resources, and the task of feeding the 1.3 billion Chinese people will be even more challenging. The authors suggest that a global agricultural strategy is the strategic choice for China because it enables China to safeguard national food security and at the same time, tackle its rising domestic demand for agricultural resources in the face of environmental pressures.