Not going against the grain

Food security is not only about having enough food to feed all the people in China but also about ensuring that the food is safe

Even in a year of excellent harvest, China faces a food shortage. Although crop output has continuously increased in the past decade and the overall grain production in 2013 broke the 600-million-ton mark for the first time, it is no easy task for China to become self-sufficient in food grains.

With the rapid increase in population and consumption, the gap between demand for and supply of food has been widening. In 2012, China's self-sufficiency rate in food dropped below 90 percent, and net imports of three major crops (wheat, corn and rice) became a normal phenomenon.