Quality seeds and arable lands key to food security

The central authorities recently stressed safeguarding the country's food security, highlighting the importance of the protection of farmland and self-reliance in seeds.

The slowdown in global grain production, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and other geopolitical risks have brought great uncertainty to global food security. At the same time, extreme weather events have become more frequent in China in recent years. The floods this summer will have an impact on agricultural production.

Whether it is out of the need to stabilize the food supply chain or strengthen agricultural disaster prevention and reduction, the nation should strive to protect arable land and realize self-reliance in seeds.

The central government has implemented a series of policies and measures in this regard, effectively protecting the country's seed resources, improving its seed breeding capacity, promoting the modernization of agriculture and enlarging the area of high-standard farmland.

However, the country cannot rest easy just yet. It should be noted that the overall development situation of China's seed industry is still unsatisfactory. The comprehensive competitiveness of the seed industry enterprises is not strong enough in the world market. The gap between the research and development capacity of domestic seed industry and that of some developed countries is still large. The country still relies heavily on foreign imports for some types of seeds that are crucial to its food security.

It should also be noted that the country's total area of cultivated land is small compared to the size of its huge population. The overall quality of arable land is not high, and the shortage of agriculture-related reserve resources has not changed fundamentally. Both the industrialization and urbanization of the country will further squeeze the area of the farmland.

Therefore, greater efforts are required to promote the national seed industry, and speed up the improvement of the quality of cultivated land so that the nation can hold its bowl in its own hands more firmly than before.