Food security has always been a vital issue for China. And given its population of 1.3 billion, it is even more important today. Most of the debates on the problem concentrate on whether the rate of increase of farm products can catch up with the country's population growth. And it seems to be the right focus.

But there is at least one person who disagrees. Proper research and use of agricultural strategy have a greater role to play in ensuring food security, says Li Changping, director of the China Rural Reconstruction Research Center of Hebei University.

China could face an agricultural crisis if the basic economic system of the countryside is damaged, Li says. The government should stick to the existing system of collective ownership of rural land and the two-tier operation mode, comprising collective management and household responsibility.

Li warns that China's food security may be threatened - despite people having enough to eat - if foreign capital gets to control the agriculture sector. Experts who claim to have a "modern outlook" toward agriculture may laugh at Li. But the former chief of a township in Hubei province knows what he's talking about.

Li made headlines in 2000 when he wrote to Zhu Rongji, then premier, about the plight of farmers and the vulnerability of agriculture. He quit his job after that so that he could devote his full time to research on agriculture and farmers.

Talking to China Daily, Li begins the support of his argument by playing down the concern over grain output, which is surprising. Since the foundation of the People's Republic of China, he says, the country's grain yield has doubled - just like its population. Technological progress, better land arrangements and improved agricultural tools will help increase grain output further. And though the country's population will increase, it is not likely to cross 1.55 billion in the next few decades. So, Li says, feeding the people should not be a problem.

Problems such as soil erosion, deterioration in water quality and climate change that could stagnate or reduce agricultural output are solvable, Li says, but the "weaponization" of farm products is not. Since ancient times, speculators have hoarded major farm products and used it like weapons to extract their pound of flesh from the people. As the saying goes, "he who controls the food supply shall control the world".

It is this lure that has driven some Western countries to devise and practice food "weaponization" programs since the end of World War II. Their strategy has been three-pronged: genetic modification of seeds, laying down grain products' standards and trade rules, and strategic arrangements on the policymaking level.

The West has been using the technology to modify seeds' genes not only to increase agricultural production, but also, and more importantly, to kill the traditional seed banks of other countries. Once the West succeeds in its endeavor, these countries would become totally dependent on its genetically modified (GM) seeds and lose their ability to ensure food security for their people and even have sovereignty over farm products.

Western countries have been trying to "colonize" the production of rice, wheat, potato and other food products, too. Li says such seeds are more dangerous to China's national security than opium in the 19th century.

Today, the West controls the seed market and has mastered the art of right pricing. And since farm product prices fluctuate easily, anyone with a 10 percent share of a product's market can cause a 50 percent hike or slump in its price.

Apart from peddling GM seeds, Western countries have also set trade rules and international standards for agricultural products. They have refused to stop giving subsidies to their farmers in their bid to control countries' farm products, seeds and pricing mechanisms. That China's soybean industry is now controlled by American capital points to the success of Western countries' food "weaponization" strategy, Li says.

China can develop its farm sector in two ways. It could either stick to the existing system of collective ownership of rural land and the two-tier operations, or it could take the road to capitalization and integration of its farm products. If it chooses the first, it could increase its agricultural production by 20 percent. But if chooses the second, it will be inviting trouble.

To explain capital's involvement in agriculture, Li says causing a disturbance in the supply chain of the farm products that a company controls is the simplest way for it to make higher profits. Unfortunately, instead of taking preemptive action against such a possibility, China's agricultural policies are yielding more room to international capital.

In contrast, Western countries have made food a part of their national security plan. Food security is as important as economic security or social and political stability for them. When former US president George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to grant subsidies to farmers who used their produce to make biofuels many laughed it off as an unprofitable move. But the same people were shocked to see it pay rich dividends when oil prices soared from about $40 to $147 a couple of years ago.

Bush's move proves that in this age, most major farm products can be used as weapons by linking them with oil, US dollar, the international exchange rate, or spot or futures markets.

So China has to ensure that its other farm products don't go the soybean way. And to do that, it has to toughen its stance against Western countries at talks on agriculture and set up strategic research institutes and policymaking departments that would advice the government on what to do and when.