China has made no secret of its ambition to increase its food security, setting the target of achieving absolute security in staple grains, such as rice and wheat, and basic self-sufficiency in overall grains and cereals. It is also looking to diversify the sources of its agricultural imports to increase the resilience of its food supply. As one of the world’s largest importers of agricultural commodities, China’s quest for greater food security could have significant impacts on global food markets.

While China has long ranked as one of the world’s largest consumers and importers of agricultural commodities, its demand patterns are starting to shift. SunSirs Commodity Data Group reported that wheat imports fell by 65% to 3.85 million metric tons in 2025, while corn imports were down by 81% year over year, on the back of strong domestic harvests. It noted that imports of barley and sorghum also fell by 26.8% and 47.5% respectively, while soybeans and rice bucked the trend, with rice imports rising by 91% year over year as China took advantage of weak global prices. Meanwhile, soybean purchases rose by 6.5% to hit a record level as China increased buying from South American countries amid concerns that the U.S. trade tariffs could trigger a supply shortfall.

These changing purchasing patterns come as China continues to pursue its goal of modernizing its agricultural sector by 2035. The recently published 15th Five-Year Plan for Accelerating the Modernization of Agriculture and Rural Areas (2026-2030) provides the latest roadmap for achieving this ambition. 

The plan looks to increase the yields of key grain and oilseed crops through a combination of modernized farming practices, advanced seed technologies, optimized agricultural land usage, and integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and smart agriculture practices into farming. It also sets the specific target of increasing grain production capacity to 725 million metric tons per year by 2030. 

At the same time, China plans to diversify the source of its agricultural imports to make its food supply more resilient.

China faces the challenge of feeding one-fifth of the world’s population from only a 10th of its arable land. As a result, optimizing the land it has at its disposal plays a critical role in meeting its food security goals. 

At the most basic level, it has introduced protections for cultivated land, ensuring the total area doesn’t drop below 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) of farmland. It has also created a further 1 billion mu (67 million hectares) of high-quality farmland through improved irrigation, drainage and other enhancements. 

Meanwhile, China is looking to increase mechanization to improve farming efficiency, with the aim to have more than 80% of cultivation, planting and harvesting mechanized by 2030, up from 76.7% in 2025. 

Seed technology forms another important pillar of the strategy, with China investing in the development of genetically modified and gene-edited crops. In 2024, Chinese regulators approved 12 varieties of genetically modified crops, including soybeans and corn, and five gene-edited crops. Total planting of genetically modified corn increased four-fold in 2025 to 3.3 million hectares, although it continued to account for only a small proportion of the total, according to data from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. 

The country is also embracing smart farming technologies to boost crop yields. These range from using drones to water and spray crops, to data analytics providing farmers with real-time advice based on soil moisture, temperature, humidity and wind conditions, to using AI to track plant growth, monitor for disease and automate farming processes. The latest Five-Year Plan sets the goal of integrating AI more deeply into agriculture through the development of smart farms and increased digital infrastructure. Overall, it expects technological advancements to contribute 67% of agricultural growth by 2030.