China sows seeds of self-reliance with ‘historic breakthrough’ in agricultural autonomy

Food-security efforts help China get ‘rid of its dependence on imported seed sources’ as it boasts world’s largest collection of agricultural genetic resources

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Farmers work a paddy field in China’s Jiangsu province. The nation has been striving to ensure a stable food supply for 1.4 billion people. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 5:30pm, 14 Aug 2024Updated: 5:56pm, 14 Aug 2024

China says it has made big strides in revitalising a seed industry that has come under heavy scrutiny in recent years while remaining reliant on more advanced Western sources, amid a nationwide push to boost self-reliance in the sector.

With 1.4 billion mouths to feed, China has ramped up food-security measures against the backdrop of tensions with trading partners such as the United States.

Agricultural authorities now say scientists are cataloguing samples – collected from a three-year nationwide survey on agricultural germplasm – and storing them in multiple seed banks that are believed to be adequate for utilisation for at least three decades, state mouthpiece CCTV reported on Monday, quoting officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Calling it a “historic breakthrough”, CCTV said China was “gradually getting rid of its dependence on imported seed sources”.

The report came six months after a candid assessment by the ministry’s China Seed Association warned that China’s seed industry was at least a generation behind Western giants in terms of technology. The industry has also been accused by agricultural experts of lacking competition while being uncreative and fragmented, impeding the push to reduce reliance on imported seeds.

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Accelerating innovation in the seed industry was also among the stated goals at a national rural work conference in December, when the ministry said China’s self-reliance rate in seeds had increased from 70 to 75 per cent since a seed-industry-revitalisation plan was launched in 2021.