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China’s food security: past success and future challenges

The rapid growth of China’s economy – averaging 9.1% per year for the 35 years since 1978 – has many implications for China’s domestic food and agriculture sector as well for the global food system. The more the nation’s economy expands, the more food is needed to feed an ever-growing middle class with significantly different consumption patterns than when the economic reforms began. Food security for China is not merely an agricultural, economic, or public health issue, but also an important social and political issue with many domestic and international implications. This article summarizes the seminal issues related to China’s food security debate, including a brief summary of the programs and policies that most credit for the nation’s great success to date in meeting 95% of domestic grain demand. A review of production and yield data at the regional scale for the reform era from a spatial-temporal perspective comparing spatial shifts in domestic proportional production of strategic grains (rice, wheat, corn) over time and space for the period from 1978 to 2011 follows, clearly showing the northward shift in national grain production to regions facing chronic water shortages.