Decades of rising productivity ensure food security

Sharing

As farming technologies have advanced and rising productivity has helped make China an agricultural powerhouse, the country has also accelerated the process of sharing its practices with countries in need.

Globally, about 821 million people still live in starvation conditions, according to The State of Food and Nutrition in the World 2019, a report published in July by several international organizations including the United Nations World Food Programme, or WFP.

China's experience in defeating hunger has proved ever-more important at a time when the impact of conflict and climate change is threatening global food security.

"The world is increasingly looking to China's experience to bolster spirits and seek solutions," said David Beasley, executive director of the WFP, during a visit to China in November.

"China is one of the success stories in beating hunger. Not just for what it has achieved in the past, but what it is doing now and will do in the future to help the world achieve 'Zero Hunger'."

China has not received food aid from the WFP since 2006. Instead, the country has gradually expanded its foreign assistance programs to help other developing countries break the cycle of agricultural impoverishment.